m 


. 

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LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE 


CONSIDERED  ESPECIALLY  IN  RELATION  TO  THE 


DIYINE   BENEVOLENCE 


BY 

LEO  HARTLEY  GRINDON, 

AUTHOR  OF  "LIFE,  ITS  NATURE,  VARIETIES,  AND  PHENOMENA, 
"  PHENOMENA  OF  PLANT  LIFE,"   ETC. 


SECOND  EDITION",  EE VISED. 


BOSTON: 
T.    H.    CARTER     A.ISrD     SO1S". 

1866. 


Stereotyped  and  Printed  by 

ROCKWELL     AND      ROLLINS, 

122  Washington  Street,  Boston. 


PREFACE 

TO  THE 

SECOND    LONDON    EDITION. 


THE  following  Papers  make  no  claim  to  a  scientific  char- 
acter. They  are  little  more  than  brief  notices  of  a  few  of 
the  phenomena  of  nature,  given  in  a  way  that  the  least 
experienced  may  understand. 

The  rapid  sale  of  the  first  edition  of -this  work,  and  the 
favor  shown  by  the  public  towards  "  Life,  its  Nature, 
Varieties,  and  Phenomena,"  and  to  the  "British  and 
Garden  Botany,"  have  been  sources  of  great  satisfaction 
to  me. 

85,  RUSIFOKD  STREET,  MANCHESTER. 


Efje  Uitalitg  of 


AMONG  the  most  wonderful  things  in  Nature  are  to  be 
reckoned  the  Eggs  of  Birds  and  of  other  creatures,  and 
the  Seeds  of  Plants.  An  atom,  often  not  so  large  as  a 
grain  of  sand,  and  apparently  endowed  with  no  greater 
amount  of  living  energy,  expands,  almost  while  we 
watch,  into  a  lively  animal ;  or  it  unfolds  a  green 
point,  which,  nourished  by  the  rain  and  sunshine,  be- 
comes the  architect  of  a  charming  flower  or  a  noble 
tree.  Did  we  not  behold  the  miracle  repeated  inces- 
santly before  our  eyes,  it  would  be  difficult  to  believe 
that  life  could  be  so  concentrated ;  but,  like  all  other 
grand  truths,  it  conies  before  us  so  much  as  a  matter 
of  course,  that  we  are  apt  to  overlook  its  marvellous- 
ness,  bestowing  our  highest  and  foremost  admiration 
upon  the  brilliant  and  the  sonorous,  —  the  lightning, 
the  awful  roll  of  the  cloud-born  thunder,  or  the  beau- 
tiful upward-streaming  glory  of  the  Aurora.  No  doubt 
these  are  things  that  deserve  our  deep  and  most  rev- 
erent interest,  alike  on  account  of  their  incomparable 
grandeur  as  natural  phenomena,  and  of  their  fine  sig- 
nificance as  emblems  of  realities  in  the  inner,  invisible 
world.  We  should,  however,  accustom  ourselves  to 
1* 


6  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

consider,  with  an  equal  delight,  the  common  every-day 
occurrences  by  which  nature  is  sustained,  and  upon 
which  we  depend  for  our  personal  and  daily  comfort. 

It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose,  that  to  find  the 
most  striking  illustrations  of  the  Divine  Love  and 
"Wisdom  in  the  arrangements  of  the  visible  creation, 
we  are  necessitated  to  look  at  what  is  immense  and 
magnificent.  Just  as  the  happiness  of  life  does  not 
depend  upon  the  half-dozen  memorable  enjoyments  that 
make  certain  years  and  days  stand  out  in  the  annals  of 
our  past,  like  the  green  and  palmy  islands  of  the  desert 
to  the  traveller,  but  upon  the  small  and  unconsidered 
blessings  that  come  fresh  and  fresh  every  hour  and 
every  moment ;  so  does  a  truly  intelligent  idea  of  the 
munificence,  the  skill,  the  taste,  —  if  such  terms  may 
be  used,  —  also  of  the  far-reaching  providence  that 
anticipates  every  want  before  it  can  possibly  be  felt, 
and  of  the  ease  and  the  infinite  power  of  Him  who 
holds  the  heavens  in  his  hands,  come  less  of  the  consid- 
eration of  mighty  phenomena  that  happen  rarely,  and 
rather  as  exceptions,  than  of  the  daily  observation  of 
that  quiet  and  pretty  ripple  of  life  through  the  tiny 
and  tender  forms  of  bee  and  butterfly,  flower  and  fern, 
and  feathered  moss,  which  imparts  a  kind  of  immor- 
tality to  the  scenery  amid  which  we  tread,  and  makes 
us  cry  out,  with  old  Isaac  Walton,  as  he  listened  to 
the  song  of  the  nightingale,  "  O  Lord !  if  these  be  thy 
gifts  to  thy  creatures  upon  earth,  what  hast  thou  not 
prepared  for  thy  saints  in  heaven  !  " 

The  preservation  of  the  vital  spark  in  Seeds,  and  its 
sudden  burst  into  vegetable  fire  when  kindled  under 


THE    VITALITY  OF  SEEDS.  7 

the  laws  that  at  once  protect  and  call  it  forth,  is  exem- 
plified as  well  as  we  could  desire  in  the  most  ordinary 
operations  of  horticulture.  When  the  parent  plant 
decays,  those  little  germs  in  which,  with  a  loving  fare- 
well, it  wraps  up  its  best  energies,  along  with  incredible 
capacity  for  bright  color,  and  sweet  smell,  and  grateful 
taste,  are  collected  by  the  gardener,  carefully  dried, 
and  put  away ;  every  seed,  he  well  knows,  is  a  store- 
house of  sleeping  life,  which,  with  the  return  of  Spring, 
if  placed  where  rain  and  sunshine  can  pay  alternate 
visits,  will  leap  into  green  infancy  of  fair  blossom  or 
wholesome  vegetable.  Nothing  more  is  wanted  to 
prove  the  fact;  but  over  and  above  this  ordinary, 
familiar  proof,  there  is  a  class  of  occurrences  less 
known  than  they  deserve  to  be,  which  are  calculated  to 
excite  our  wonder  to  the  utmost.  Properly-ripened 
seeds,  if  placed  in  certain  conditions,  are  literally 
immortal.  That  is  to  say,  they  are  capable  of  retain- 
ing their  growing  power  indefinitely  ;  not  merely  for  a 
few  years,  not  merely  for  a  few  centuries,  but  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  —  how  long,  indeed,  no  man  can  say. 
The  earthy  crust  of  our  planet  appears  to  be  stocked 
in  every  part  with  seeds  that  have  been  produced  in 
years  gone  b}T,  scattered  upon  the  surface,  and  subse- 
quently covered  up  with  soil.  "Whenever  the  ground  is 
disturbed,  either  by  the  plough,  or  by  the  spade  of  the 
railway  excavator,  or  for  any  purpose  which  causes  its 
depths  to  be  overturned,  —  that  portion  which  was 
many  feet  below  being  thrown  to  the  surface,  and  ex- 
posed to  the  air,  the  sunbeams,  and  the  moisture  of 
dew  and  rain,  —  immediately  there  springs  up  a  crop  of 


8  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

young  plants,  certainly  not  originating  in  seeds  only 
just  then  brought  from  neighboring  fields,  and,  as  cer- 
tainly, from  seeds  that  have  been  lying  in  the  soil  for 
ages.  How  they  came  to  be  covered  up  is  easy  to  con- 
ceive, when  we  see  with  our  own  eyes  what  is  done  by 
wintry  floods,  and  the  sweeping  down  of  great  masses 
of  earth  and  soil,  which  accumulate  often  to  a  consid- 
erable depth,  and  are  no  doubt  similarly  charged  with 
seeds,  which,  after  waiting  their  turn,  will  some  day 
grow.  For  it  is  a  clearly  established  fact  that  no  seed 
can  germinate  or  begin  to  sprout,  unless  it  have  the 
threefold  influence  in  direct  operation  upon  it,  of 
warmth,  moisture,  and  the  atmosphere.  Let  it  be  shut 
in  from  the  access  of  these,  and  it  lies  passive,  giving 
no  sign  of  life  or  growth,  and  incapable  of  doing  so. 

How  wonderful  to  think  that  this  crust  of  the  earth 
upon  which  we  daily  walk  so  thoughtlessly,  is  at  once 
the  cemetery  of  five  or  six  thousand  billions  of  men  and 
women,  so  far  as  regards  their  terrestrial  bodies,  they 
themselves  being  all  vigorously  alive  in  another  state,  — 
and  a  storehouse  of  the  germs  of  innumerable  plants 
and  flowers  !  What  a  provision  in  it  for  the  perpetual 
renewal  of  the  earth's  green  carpet !  Let  blight,  or 
locusts,  or  the  cold  grip  of  an  inexorable  frost,  change 
it  to  brown  barrenness,  the  simple  upheaval  of  a. few 
feet  of  soil  would  soon  furnish  material  for  clothing  it 
anew.  God  never  leaves  himself  without  a  witness. 
The  world  is  never  so  drowned  but  some  little  ark 
swims  upon  the  water's  top  with  a  treasury  of  new 
blessedness ;  and  could  we  conceive  it  possible  that 
desolation  should  afflict  the  earth's  surface,  under  the 


THE   VITALITY  OF  SEEDS.  9 

laws  of  natural  calamity,  we  are  assured  that  from  the 
granaries  below  there  would  soon  flow  an  abundant 
restoration. 

Some  persons  hare  tried  to  refer  this  wonderful  cir- 
cumstance of  the  immediate  growth  of  plants  upon 
newly  turned-up  soil  to  an  origin  inconsistently  called 
"  spontaneous  generation,"  that  is  to  say,  development 
out  of  earth,  sand,  and  water,  and  any  other  odds  and 
ends  of  inanimate  matter  which  might  happen  to  be 
collected  together.  No  doubt,  if  it  pleased  the  Al- 
mighty to  sow  life  afresh  upon  our  planet,  he  could  do 
so.  It  may  be  in  conformity  with  the  laws  of  his  Divine 
Order  so  to  do.  But  all  that  it  has  been  permitted  to 
man  to  learn  and  think  in  reference  to  this  subject,  is 
opposed  to  the  idea  of  plants  and  animals  ever  now 
arising  except  from  seeds  and  eggs  produced  by  previ- 
ous individuals  or  pairs  of  the  same  species.  We  are 
never  justified  in  going  to  supernatural  causes  for  the 
explanation  of  occurrences  which  a  calm  and  reverent 
exploration  will  show  to  have  their  rise  in  natural 
causes ;  and  no  ground  has  ever  yet  been  shown  for 
supposing  that  the  plants  which  appear  on  railway 
embankments  and  any  similar  places,  cannot  have  orig- 
inated in  the  way  described. 

True,  there  is  a  great  deal  that  is  very  perplexing  in 
regard  to  the  apparently  spontaneous  development  of 
some  forms  of  living  things,  such  as  of  grubs  in  flour 
and  bran.  But  the  perplexity  is  the  sign  merely  of  our 
ignorance  of  particulars  that  no  doubt  it  will  be  granted 
to  future  generations  of  men  to  discover.  It  is  cer- 
tainly no  proof  that  the  hypothesis  of  spontaneous 


10  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

development  is  a  reasonable  one.  "We  are  under  no 
circumstances  justified  in  trying  to  accommodate  facts 
that  we  do  not  understand  to  speculations  that  are  not 
founded  upon  other  and  well-established  facts.  If  they 
will  not  fit,  our  wisdom  is  to  wait.  No  one  can  discern 
the  seeds  in  the  earth ;  yet  they  are  there.  So  are  the 
germs  in  the  bran,  waiting,  like  the  former,  for  their 
needful  stimuli.  Nothing  is  ever  got  by  arguing  from 

.V  our  ignorance  ;  nor  is  anything  ever  got  by  too  much 
eagerness  and  haste  to  possess  it.  "Tarry  ye  the 

"'t'  Lord's  leisure,"  is  a  principle  wise  to  observe  alike  in 
method  of  life  and  in  philosophy.  If  materialists,  who 
look  with  approval  on  such  hypotheses  as  that  of 
"  spontaneous  development,"  would  first  seek  to  learn 
all  that  it  has  pleased  God  to  disclose  concerning  devel- 
opment according  to  the  laws  of  order,  as  exhibited  in 
the  regular  succession  of  plants  and  animals,  and  in 
the  history  of  the  human  heart  and  mind,  they  would 
find  that  no  philosophy  is  so  wise  and  good,  and  will 
help  them  through  so  many  difficulties,  as  that  which 
starts  from  the  spiritual  and  from  MAN  ;  and  primarily 
from  the  Divine  Humanity,  which  —  with  all  reverence 
be  it  spoken  —  is  the  point  from  which  run  the  avenues 
to  all  science  and  all  nature,  and  in  which  they  all  con- 
verge, like  the  branches  of  a  tree  in  its  pillar-stem. 

Special  examples  of  the  growth  of  long-buried  seeds 
upon  newly  turned-up  soil  are  easy  to  cite.  Some  of 
the  most  extraordinary  are  those  where  poppies  are  the 
subject.  No  plant  in  nature  is  more  remarkable  than 
the  poppy.  Humble  in  its  growth,  its  juice  is  one  of 
the  most  powerful  sedatives  known  to  medicine,  while 


THE    VITALITY  OF  SEEDS.  1 1 

the  essence  of  that  juice,  called  morphia,  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  of  vegetable  poisons.  At  night  the 
flowers  close  in  a  peculiarly  elegant  manner,  —  sleeping 
as  if  lulled  by  their  own  lethean  balm;  the  petals, 
instead  of  being  laid  smooth  and  flat  in  the  bud,  as 
happens  with  almost  every  other  flower,  are  squeezed 
and  crumpled  together,  so  that  they  never  become 
perfectly  straight ;  and  when  they  expand,  they  do 
so  with  such  force  as  to  thrust  off  the  green  chalice 
that  encircled  them  as  a  cradle.  Every  capsule,  or 
"poppy-head,"  contains  hundreds  of  minute  seeds, 
which  are  beautifully  chased  upon  the  outside,  so  as  to 
form  exquisite  objects  for  the  microscope,  without 
which  the  embossing  cannot  be  seen ;  and  lastly,  these 
seeds,  when  they  fall  upon  the  ground,  seem  indestruc- 
tible. They  only  spring  up,  however,  and  form  new 
poppy-plants  when  the  earth  which  contained  them  is 
lightly  disturbed.  Trodden  in,  so  that  the  earth  is 
compacted,  and  elbow-room,  as  it  were,  denied  to  them, 
they  lie  without  any  effort  to  grow.  Of  course,  under 
such  circumstances,  they  cannot  be  stimulated  by  the 
threefold  essentials,  sunshine,  air,  and  moisture.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  within  these  last  few  years,  and 
probably  this  very  last  summer,  crops  of  the  wild 
crimson  poppy  of  our  own  country  have  sprung  up 
from  seeds  which  were  ripened  at  that  remote  period  in 
the  history  of  the  fragment  of  Europe  we  now  call 
Britain,  when  no  portion  of  it  was  occupied  by  human 
beings.  The  geological  character  of  the  surface  and  7- 
subjacent  layers  shows  that  thousands  of  years  must 
have  rolled  away  since  the  parents  of  these  poppies 


12  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

flaunted  their  gay  apparel  in  the  sunshine ;  and  but 
for  the  accidental  disruption  of  the  soil  that  contained 
them,  they  would  apparently  have  retained  their  grow- 
ing power  for  ages  to  come. 

When  tracts  of  forest-land  are  cleared  of  the  timber, 
as  often  happens  in  North  America,  and  occasionally 
in  our  own  country,  the  following  season  there  springs 
up  in  abundance  where  the  trees  stood  previously,  some 
pretty  herbaceous  plant  that  was  quite  unknown  there 
while  the  trees  existed,  and  which  had  been  patiently 
"biding  its  time."  The  explanation  of  such  curious 
appearances  is  perfectly  simple.  The  herbaceous  plant, 
whatever  it  may  be,  had  occupied  the  ground  when 
there  were  no  trees  there,  forming  some  kind  of  herbage 
or  meadow,  and  letting  fall  its  annual  progeny  of  seeds. 
In  course  of  time  trees  have  sprung  up,  their  own 
seeds  conveyed  thither  either  by  human  agency,  or  by 
one  or  other  of  the  wonderful  contrivances  of  nature 
which  insure  propagation,  whether  man  give  his  aid  or 
not.  These  trees  have  offered  too  dense  a  shade  for 
the  herbaceous  plant,  which  retires,  as  it  were,  into  pri- 
vate life ;  but  when  they  in  their  turn  are  cut  down, 
the  original  plants  return,  covering  the  surface  with 
the  old  imperishable  carpet.  Is  the  mortality  or  the 
immortality  of  nature  the  more  wonderful?  Every 
season  the  ranks  of  the  vegetable  population  of  our 
planet  are  smitten  by  death,— there  seems  no  hope  for 
their  restoration.  There  is  no  sound,  no  movement,  to 
show  that  life  is  still  throbbing;  yet,  with  the  first 
kisses  of  the  new-born  year,  the  necropolis  changes 
into  a  scene  of  nimble  and  beautiful  growth,  and  we 


THE  VITALITY  OF  SEEDS.  13 

see  that  it  was  not  destruction  that  was  effected  by  the 
cold  touch  of  winter, — that  nothing  had  really  per- 
ished ;  but  that  it  was  life  that  had  retired  awhile  to 
gather  itself  up  for  a  new  effort,  —  simulating  death, — 
and  which  now  bursts  forth  again  in  all  the  old  exuber- 
ance and  sprightly  sweetness.  What  looks  like  death 
in  nature  is  never  anything  more  than  the  highest  and 
essential  part  of  its  life,  pausing  awhile  that  it  may 
start  anew.  The  forms  in  which  it  is  clothed  are  cast 
away ;  but  the  life  never  gives  way  for  a  single  instant. 

And  this  is  the  grand  lesson  to  be  learned  froih  the 
consideration  of  seeds,  and  their  wonderful  vitality. 
Every  particular  seed  contains  within  itself  the  life  of 
the  plant,  just  as  one's  own  true  life  resides  in  the 
spiritual  body.  Our  leaves  and  blossoms  drop  away 
with  autumn  ;  the  white  snow  descends  upon  our  brows, 
its  flakes  tremble  in  the  wind ;  the  colors  fade ;  the 
force  declines ;  presently  the  whole  of  the  poor,  old, 
worn-out  frame  sinks  helplessly  in  the  dust,  never  to 
rise  again ;  but  who  or  what  is  dead  ?  Cross  the  dark 
river,  which  in  the  material  world  is  represented  by 
winter,  and  then  all  that  is  worth  having  is  found  safe, 
and  shining  in  the  sweet  lineaments  of  renewed  youth ! 

Many  kinds  of  seeds  are  gifted  with  powers  not 
merely  of  retaining  life  under  the  ordinary  circum- 
stances of  nature,  but  of  resisting  the  most  terrible 
attacks.  When  wine  has  been  made  from  raisins,  and 
the  refuse  has  been  scattered  over  the  fields  as  manure, 
it  has  been  observed  that  the  grape-seeds  have  vege- 
tated, and  produced  young  vines ;  and  this  notwith- 
standing the  boiling  and  fermentation  they  have  had  to 


14  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

endure.  The  seeds  of  elder-berries  have  been  observed 
A  to  grow  after  similar  trials.  Many  experiments  have 
been  made  to  ascertain  exactly  what  amount  of  unnat- 
ural heat  seeds  can  bear  without  being  destroyed.  It 
considerably  exceeds  that  which  plants  can  bear ;  and 
the  same  is  the  case  with  respect  to  extreme  cold.  / 

Thus  are  the  wonderful  phenomena  of  nature  not 
only  good  and  delightful  to  contemplate  in  themselves, 
but  intrusted  with  the  higher  value  of  representing  the 
great  truths  of  religion.  'There  is  probably  no  true 
doctrine  in  matters  of  religion  which  is  not  somewhere 
illustrated  in  the  processes  of  nature ;  certainly  there 
is  nothing  in  the  benevolence  of  God  with  regard  to 
man  for  which  we  may  not  find  some  exquisite  parallel 
among  the  forms  of  humble  nature,  learning  from  them 
even  to  understand  it  better,  because  shown  in  so  sim- 
ple a  way.  The  "diligent  hand"  always  "maketh 
rich,"  both  in  worldly  possessions  and  in  the  best  of  all 
knowledge,  which  is  that  of  the  Love  and  "Wisdom  of 
God. 


.Sleep  of 


WALKING  through  the  decorated  fields  of  Summer, 
before  the  scythe  of  the  mower  has  laid  their  sweet 
crowds  low,  or  along  the  paths  of  some  well-trimmed 
garden,  rich  with  the  floral  spoils  of  many  distant  lands, 
and  noting  the  cups  and  chalices  of  their  thousand 
blossoms,  as  they  drink  the  tender  warmth  of  the  sun- 
shine, we  naturally  imagine  that  the  condition  of  a 
flower,  whether  wild  in  the  country,  or  forming  part  of 
the  elegant  and  cultivated  company  of  the  parterre,  is 
to  remain,  after  once  expanded,  like  the  Electric  Tele- 
graph Office,  "  open  always."  Our  ideas  rest,  as  in  all 
other  matters,  upon  what  we  happen  to  behold  at  the 
moment,  and  this  partial  truth  is  believed  to  be  the 
whole  ;  and  this  temporary  condition — for  it  really  is 
no  more — to  be  the  prolonged  and  the  abiding  one; 
the  abiding  one,  that  is  to  say,  until  the  flower  shall 
have  worn  out  its  little  lease  of  life,  and  petal  and 
stamen,  calyx  and  honey-bag,  alike  dissolve  and  are 
lost  in  the  bosom  of  mother  earth,  from  which  all 
things  come,  and  to  which  all  return. 

Flowers,  ordinarily,  are  not  "open  always;"  those 
of  many  of  the  largest  and  most  important  classes  of 


16  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

plants  close  as  regularly  as  day  changes  to  night, 
remaining  shut  during  the  hours  of  darkness,  and 
re-opening  their  lovely  petals  when  sunshine  returns. 
The  fascinating  and  innumerably- various  phenomena  of 
their  morning  expansion  and  twilight  folding,  are  the 
illustrations,  in  part,  of  what  botanists  term  the  Sleep 
of  plants.  Similar  phenomena  occur  in  connection 
with  the  leaves,  and  together  they  form  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  displays  in  nature  of  the  Divine  Benevo- 
lence as  shown  in  little  things. 

If  we  examine  a  flower  carefully,  with  a  view  to  an 
intelligent  comprehension  of  how  it  is  constructed, — 
not  necessarily  pulling  it  to  pieces,  but  turning  it  over 
and  over,  round  and  round,  looking  first  at  the  out- 
side, then  into  the  depth  of  its  heart, — we  find  that  it 
consists,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  of  two  distinct 
portions — an  outer  one,  which  is  green,  and  in  texture 
not  unlike  a  leaf,  and  an  inner  one,  which  is  softer 
than  the  finest  satin,  usually  thinner  than  the  thinnest 
silver-paper,  and  exquisitely  colored.  The  outer  por- 
tion is  the  "calyx," — in  which  word  we  have  only 
another  way  of  writing  "  chalice  ;"  the  inner  portion  is 
the  "corolla,"  literally  the  "little  crown,"  so  called 
from  the  poetical,  and  therefore  good  and  true  idea 
which  regards  it  as  marking  the  day  when  the  plant 
is  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  highest  honor  and  glory, 
upon  which  it  is  "crowned,"  as  it  were,  and  thus  in 
the  condition  of  king  or  queen  when  lifted  to  the  high- 
est pinnacle  of  royal  dignity  by  having  the  golden 
diadem  placed  upon  the  brow. 

Let  us  look  yet  a  little  more  attentive^,  and  we 


THE  SLEEP  OF  PLANTS.  17 

discern  that  this  pretty  flower-crown,  this  "corolla,"  is 
in  some  flowers  composed  of  many  distinct  pieces  or 
leaves,  while  in  others  it  appears  to  consist  of  only  one 
piece,  wrought  into  the  form  of  a  little  vase.  Whether 
few  or  many,  the  component  pieces  of  the  corolla  are 
called  the  "  petals,"  which  name,  when  we  would  speak 
correctly  of  them,  we  should  always  make  use  of,  since 
the  word  "  leaves"  applies  properly  only  to  the  green 
foliage  of  a  plant.  "  Rose-leaves,"  often  used  for  scent- 
pots,  are  properly  "  rose-petals."  Now  the  sleep  of  a 
flower  consists  mainly  in  the  changes  of  the  positions 
of  these  "  petals."  The  calyx  or  chalice  which  encir- 
cles them,  and  which  covered  them  up  while  the  flower 
was  only  a  bud,  undergoes  no  change  at  night,  or  never 
more  than  a  very  slight  and  scarcely  appreciable  one  ; 
the  movement  is  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  colored 
portion  within. 

And  now  we  come  to  one  of  the  most  captivating 
chapters  in  the  history.  As  there  are  scores  of  differ- 
ent shapes  of  corollas,  so  are  there  scores  of  different 
modes  of  closing,  every  different  one  determined  by 
the  peculiar  configuration  of  the  corolla.  This  is  no 
more  than  we  might  expect  from  the  analogies  .of 
nature,  which  is  everywhere  brimful  of  echoes,  giving 
us  utterances  over  and  over  again  of  simple  and  elegant 
ideas,  that  are  not  different  intrinsically,  but  only  pre- 
sented to  our  eyes  after  another  manner,  just  as  the 
promises  of  Holy  "Writ  are  still  identically  the  same, 
whether  they  be  printed  in  Hebrew  letters,  or  in  Eng- 
lish ones,  or  in  German.  Who  has  not  noticed  how 
various  are  the  attitudes  assumed  by  the  different  kinds 
2» 


18  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

of  animals  when  they  compose  themselves  for  sleep ! 
It  is  the  very  same  thing  in  our  own  private  and  per- 
sonal right  side  and  left  side,  doublings  up,  stretchings 
out,  and  miscellaneous  angularities  ;  —  every  one  of  us 
works  out  some  principle  of  ease  and  comfort ;  — 
every  animal  and  every  bird  in  like  manner  works  out 
some  principle  of  happy  repose,  determined,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  by  the  peculiarities  and  the  arrangement 
of  the  limbs,  and  signified  in  what  we  may  often  per- 
haps deem  only  an  accidental  mode,  but  which  is  orig- 
inal and  inevitable  to  the  creature  manifesting  it. 
Again  in  like  manner,  every  flower  that  is  so  con- 
structed as  to  allow  of  the  petals  changing  position, 
has  its  own  native,  and  peculiar,  and  invariable  way  of 
exhibiting  this  beautiful  fact  of  vegetable  repose.  The 
poppy,  that  we  spoke  of  just  now,  has  four  petals, 
which  at  high  noon  stand  apart,  and  form  a  crimson 
bowl.  When  the  sun  sinks  low  in  the  sky,  and  the 
birds  are  trilling  their  nestward  songs,  the  two  inner 
petals  have  raised  themselves  so  as  to  be  upright,  and 
have  coiled  themselves  one  round  the  other ;  the  two 
outer  petals  meanwhile  also  lift  themselves  erect,  but 
keep  perfectly  flat,  and  form  a  pair  of  great  shields, 
one  upon  either  side  of  the  coil  within.  \In  the  daisy, 
on  the  other  hand,  also  in  the  marigold, — 

"  that  goes  to  bed  with  the  sun, 

And  with  him  rises  weeping,"— 

the  petals  are  very  numerous,  and  spread  in  a  star-like 
manner  round  the  disc  of  the  flower.  Towards  twilight 
they  all  rise  simultaneously,  though  slowly, — bring 


\ 

THE  SLEEP  OF  JPLANTS.\  19 

>5^ 

their  delicate  points  together,  and  form  a  conical  tent, 
which  neither  rain  nor  prowling  night-insect  can  break 
through. 

It  is  for  the  purpose  of  defending  the  delicate  inter- 
nal parts  of  the  flower  from  nocturnal  cold,  and  chill 
morning  and  evening  dews,  and  from  the  ravages  that 
might  be  made  upon  them  by  such  of  the  insect  tribes 
as  come  out  after  dark,  that  this  admirable  provision 
of  the  closing  of  the  corolla  appears  to  have  been  insti- 
tuted, since  there  is  nothing  of  the  nature  of  sleep,  in 
the  human  or  zoological  sense  of  the  word,  to  be  detected 
in  plants.  They  do  not  require  it.  Men  and  women, 
quadrupeds  and  birds,  seek  their  pillows  and  their  vari- 
ous retreats  when  night  comes  on,  or,  at  least,  when 
they  have  finished  their  day's  labor  or  pastime,  as  the 
case  may  be,  because  during  the  previous  hours  there 
has  been  a  great  expenditure  of  nervous  energy,  which 
requires  for  its  re-establishment  a  long  period  of  per- 
fect physical  quiescence.  During  sleep,  the  diligent 
little  masons,  carpenters,  and  joiners  of  the  human 
body  set  vigorously  to  work,  wherever  repair  is  needed. 
Like  an  active  garrison  in  a  besieged  town,  they  reno- 
vate during  the  night  whatever  has  been  damaged  during 
the  day ;  and  when  morning  returns,  we  wake  fresh, 
strong,  and  buoyant,  ready  to  start  again.  Would  that 
we  were  always  proportionately  thankful  to  Him  who 
"giveth  his  beloved  sleep,"  and  who  thus  daily  replaces 
us  so  comfortably  on  the  threshold  of  existence !  In 
plants  there  is  no  such  expenditure  of  nervous  energy. 
They  have  no  nerves.  The  activity  of  their  life  is  not 
accompanied  by  wear  and  tear.  It  consists  solely  in 


20  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

growth,  preparation  of  new  material,  and  consolidation 
of  that  material  into  new  branches,  twigs,  and  leaves. 
Whatever  appearance  resembling  sleep  they  may  pre- 
sent after  nightfall,  is  not  of  the  nature  of  slumbering 
repose.  It  is  simply  a  relaxed  condition  of  the  petals, 
dependent,  in  most  cases,  upon  the  removal  of  the 
stimulus  of  the  solar  light,  whereby  they  are  made  to 
subserve  most  elegantly  the  high  and  beautiful  purpose 
of  protecting  what  is  at  once  the  most  important,  and 
the  tenderest,  and  most  vulnerable  portion  of  the  flower. 
The  centre  of  the  flower  contains  the  apparatus  which 
originates  the  seed;  and  in  the  inmost  core  lies  the 
rudimentary  seed  itself  concealed,  like  the  infant  in  its 
ante-natal  state,  almost  invisible  to  the  unassisted  eye, 
and  exquisitely  sensitive  to  the  slightest  injury.  It  is 
to  protect  this  that  the  so-called  sleep  of  the  flower  is 
called  into  play.  When  the  petals  fold  together,  it  is 
Nature,  always  solicitous  to  befriend,  drawing  the 
silken  curtains  round  the  cradle  in  which  her  progeny 
lies  forming ;  and  as  nothing  so  much  assists  the 
growth  and  development  of  this  tiny  rudiment  of  future 
tree  or  brilliant  flower  as  warmth,  directly  the  sun 
shines  again,  the  curtains  are  withdrawn,  and  the  cen- 
tre of  the  flower  is  turned  as  directly  as  possible 
towards  the  life-giving  orb. 

Flowers  are  made  so  beautiful  as  we  find  them,  no 
doubt  in  a  high  degree  for  the  delight  of  human  eyes. 
Before  the  appearance  of  man  upon  this  earth  of  ours, 
scarcely  anything  of  the  character  of  a  flower  had  been 
ultimated  into  existence  here.  Geology  makes  this 
abundantly  evident,  together  with  the  fact  that  flower- 


THE  SLEEP  Off  PLANTS.  21 

ing  plants,  properly  so  called,  began  to  appear  in  plenty 
upon  the  earth's  surface  only  when  the  golden  period 
•which  we  call  the  creation  of  man,  was  swiftly  approach- 
ing. Human  delight,  however,  is  not  their  only  intent. 
The  happiness  of  mankind  is  enhanced,  without  ques- 
tion, by  every  circumstance  in  nature,  either  directly 
or  indirectly ;  but  a  special  intent  in  the  beauty  of 
1  flowers,  as  produced  by  their  colored  and  satin-textured 
petals,  is  that  they  shall  act  as  so  many  concave  mir- 
rors, and  reflecting  surfaces,  catching  the  sun's  rays, 
and  concentrating  and  casting  them  upon  the  seed- 
forming  apparatus,  just  as  white  clouds  beautifully  fling 
upon  the  earth  light  which  they  themselves  have  first 
received  from  the  common  source,  or  as  silken  curtains 
to  parlor-windows  transmit,  when  the  sun  is  shining,  a 
lustre  not  their  own  to  our  tables  and  books,  and  even 
to  our  faces. 

And  here  it  may  be  remarked  that  another  use  of  the 
painted  petals  of  flowers  is  to  attract  little  flying  crea- 
tures of  good  purpose,  since,  by  the  action  of  their  tiny 
feet,  and  by  the  play  of  their  transparent  wings,  they 
help,  although  unconsciously,  to  dislodge  the  pollen  or 
yellow  dust  contained  in  the  threads  of  the  flower,  and 
cause  it  to  fall  upon  the  seed-cradle,  and  thus  help  for- 
ward the  production  of  the  seed,  which,  unless  it  were 
fed  by  this  yellow  dust,  would  never  come  to  maturity, 
but  wither  away  while  no  larger  than  the  point  of  a 
pin.  How  wonderful  are  the  expedients  made  use  of 
in  so  simple  a  thing  as  a  flower !  A  flower  has  as 
many  friends  as  a  human  creature.  The  sun,  the  fresh 
air,  the  dew,  the  nourishing  earth,  the  rain,  even  the 


22  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

cold  of  winter,  alike  lend  their  aid.     Bees,  butterflies, 

I  a  score  of  almost  invisible  pairs  of  wings,  visit  it  in 

turn,  every  one  of  them  doing  its  own  peculiar  good 
service. 

Many  flowers  close  their  petals  at  nearly  definite 
periods  of  the  day,  and  others  open  their  petals  at  par- 
ticular times  of  the  morning  ;  and  there  are  many  that 
appear  to  act  independently  of  the  stimulus  of  light,* 
since  they  do  not  expand  for  several  hours  after  the 
sun  has  risen.  Perhaps  they  require  the  atmosphere  to 
be  well  aired.  There  are  many  more,  indeed,  that 
open  in  the  night  time,  —  suggesting  comparison  with 
the  birds  that  are  nearly  silent  during  the  day,  and 
only  open  their  sweet  throats  for  carols  in  the  darkness. 
These  have  their  counterparts  also  in  moths  and  other 
insects  that  only  fly  by  night,  so  that  there  is  nothing 
in  it  anomalous  or  unnatural.  Their  habits  cannot, 
indeed,  be  unnatural,  for  they  are  quite  as  much  a  part 
of  the  custom  and  method  of  nature  as  are  those  of  the 
flowers  which  expand  with  the  song  of  the  lark,  or 
those  of  the  birds  that  chant  over  the  "morning-glo- 
ries," *  or  those  of  the  butterflies  that  flirt  their  deep- 
dyed  wings  on  the  bosom  of  the  rose.  So  exact  are 
the  times  of  opening  and  closing,  that  a  "floral  clock" 
may  be  contrived  by  any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble 
to  collect  together  in  a  garden  such  flowers  as  are  suit- 
able, and  plant  them  in  lineal  or  circular  order.  Lin- 


* "  Morning-glories "  are  the  flowers  of  the  different  kinds  of  convol- 
vulus, all  of  which  open  at  daybreak,  and  are  remarkable  for  the  splendor 
and  the  purity  of  their  colors. 


THE  SLEEP  OF  PLANTS.  23 

naeus  contrived  such  a  flower-clock  in  his  garden  at 
Upsala,  and  others  have  been  made  in  our  own  country. 
Of  course  the  difference  of  latitude,  the  change  of  the 
aspect,  and  other  circumstances,  cause  slight  differences 
in  the  time  of  opening,  so  that  no  list  of  times  drawn 
up  in  one  country  will  exactly  correspond  with  that  of 
another.  But  they  always  preserve  the  same  relation  ; 
—  a  particular  flower  is  always  an  hour  earlier  or  an 
hour  later  than  another  flower ;  so  that  when  once  the 
periods  at  which  either  of  them  opens,  under  given  and 
definite  circumstances,  has  been  ascertained,  the  periods 
of  the  others  may  readily  be  calculated.  It  is  much 
the  same  as  with  the  positions  of  the  stars,  and  their 
relations  to  particular  hours  of  the  night,  according 
as  the  seasons  change.  Though  Arcturus,  and  Orion, 
and  the  Pleiades,  "shedding  sweet  influence,"  are  not 
always  to  be  found  in  the  same  part  of  the  heavens, 
yet  when  we  espy  either  one  of  them,  we  always  know 
where  to  look  for  the  others.  The  three  great  stars 
that  form  the  slantwise  belt  of  Orion,  always  point  in 
a  direct  line  upwards  to  the  Pleiades ;  and  the  same 
three  splendid  diamonds  always  point  in  a  direct  line 
downwards  to  Sirius,  the  most  brilliant  of  the  fixed 
stars,  and  one  of  the  nearest  to  the  earth.  Sirius  and 
the  Pleiades  are  just  about  equidistant  from  Orion's 
belt,  so  that  there  never  need  be  any  difficulty  in  deter- 
mining them. 

There  is  one  large  class  of  plants,  constituting  the 
Pea-family,  in  which  the  sleep  of  flowers  is  often  ac- 
companied by  a  corresponding  condition  of  the  leaves. 
Of  course  this  latter  is  in  no  way  subservient  to  the 


24  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

protection  of  the  reproductive  apparatus,  except  in  a 
few  instances,  where  we  find  the  leaves  that  are  nearest 
to  the  blossom  folding  together  in  such  a  way  as  to 
become  a  cloak  for  it.  But  this  is  very  rare.  \Ve  may 
observe  it  in  the  four-podded  lotus ;  it  is  said  to  be 
very  prettily  shown  also  in  the  tamarind-tree ;  and 
those  travellers  in  foreign  countries  who  are  quick  to 
notice  such  things,  have  probably  detected  other  exam- 
ples. The  sleep  of  the  leaves  is  a  simultaneous  but  an 
independent  phenomenon,  and  its  object  is  more  like 
that  of  animal  sleep,  namely,  to  give  to  the  vitality  of 
the  plant  a  respite  from  the  employment  to  which  it  is 
devoted  during  the  day,  and  to  allow  of  the  quiet  prog- 
ress of  its  internal  or  domestic  economy.  During  the 
day,  the  leaves  of  plants  are  held  in  a  constrained  posi- 
tion by  the  force  of  the  sunlight,  which  draws  them 
towards  itself  as  a  magnet  draws  a  piece  of  steel,  and 
all  this  time  they  are  diligently  engaged  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  new  vegetable  substance  out  of  the  carbonic 
acid,  the  water,  and  other  available  materials  con- 
tained in  the  atmosphere.  All  this  time  the  leaves  are 
like  so  many  industrious  men  and  women,  whom  the 
morning  calls  away  from  their  pillows,  and  impels  by 
its  inspirations  to  renew  their  daily  duties.  Their 
allegiance  to  the  sun  is  precisely  similar ;  and  when,  at 
the  close  of  the  day,  the  great  ruler  retires,  and  the 
constraint  is  removed,  on  the  one  hand  we  see  the 
work-room  and  the  counting-house  exchanged  for  the 
arm-chair  or  the  fireside  ;  on  the  other  we  see  the  foli- 
age that  just  now  was  spread  so  vividty,  droop  with 
rich  and  elegant  languor,  and  lie  like  the  ringlets  on 


THE  SLEEP  OF  PLANTS.  25 

the  neck  of  a  child  that  has  fallen  asleep  in  the  midst 
of  its  play. 

Nothing  is  more  beautiful  to  contemplate  than  the 
parallel  between  the  life  of  leaves  and  that  of  man. 
Infancy  in  the  one  is  the  early  spring  condition  of  the 
other.  Each  has  its  summer  of  maturity,  and  each  has 
its  autumn  of  decline ;  while  every  separate  day  and 
night  is  with  each  an  alternation  of  activity  and  rest. 
Leaves  do  nothing  during  the  night  —  that  is  to  say, 
nothing  of  the  nature  of  work  for  the  benefit  of  the 
plant  as  a  whole ;  their  activity  ceases  when  darkness 
comes  ;  they  never  fail,  however,  while  alive,  to  resume 
it  in  the  morning.  Nearly  all  that  a  plant  contains  is 
prepared  in  the  leaves.  The  roots  absorb  plenty  of 
crude  nourishment,  but  it  is  in  the  leaves  that  this  is 
converted  into  genuine  plant-food  ;  so  that  we  may  well 
compare  them  to  the  busy  laborers  who  maintain  the 
fabric  and  the  comfort  of  society, — men  in  the  town, 
women  in  the  sanctuaries  of  home,  —  every  one  of 
whom  who  fulfils  the  duties  of  life  is  a  leaf  of  the  great 
tree  of  the  human  family.  "Well,  too,  may  we  expect 
that  in  the  evening  they  should  show  signs  of  weari- 
ness, and  repose  themselves  each  in  its  own  fashion. 
Man  comes  home  to  the  prattle  of  his  little  folk,  their 
tales  of  the  day's  wonders,  told  half  out-of-breath,  and 
with  sweet  dance  of  innocent  eyes  to  the  music  of  min- 
gled voices ;  or  he  comes  to  the  "  wife  of  his  youth," 
happy  in  her  little  pride,  that  lives  not  so  much  upon 
her  knees  as  in  the  innermost  centre  of  her  heart,  and 
lifts  up  heaven  into  her  face  in  small,  sweet  babe- 
smiles  that  float  like  speech  from  lips  yet  speechless, 
3 


26  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

but  to  call  her  some  day  by  the  sweetest  name  a  woman 
can  hear; — home  he  comes  to  these,  finding  that  the 
Golden  Age  is  not  a  dream  of  ancient  poets,  but  a 
golden  thread  that  runs  through  all  the  years  and  cen- 
turies, and  of  which  he  holds  a  filament ;  and  over 
them  he  closes  like  the  lotus  and  the  tamarind. 

True,  it  is  not  always  so,  as  we  may  learn  again 
from  other  leaves  that  wing-wrung  and  dusty,  seem 
placed  in  nature  only  that  they  may  supply  contrasts. 
But,  when  realized,  how  beautiful  those  evening  hours  ! 
Feeling  and  affection  fill  them  with  all  forms  of  human 
delight.  Is  it  surprising,  then,  is  it  anything  but  most 
natural,  that  among  the  changes  of  the  green  leaves, 
which  are  images  of  them  in  the  world  of  plants,  we 
should  find  the  most  exquisite  diversities ;  the  leaves 
of  the  lupine  fold  into  the  shape  of  a  lady's  half-opened 
parasol ;  those  of  the  wood-sorrel  dispose  themselves 
into  the  form  of  a  triangular  pyramid ;  those  of  the 
white  clover  make  a  letter  T  ;  those  of  the  vetch  kind, 
which  grow  in  opposite  pairs,  rise  up  face  to  face,  like 
two  hands  with  the  palms  pressed  together  ? 

We  need  not  go  into  Botanic  Gardens  to  see  these 
things,  —  they  lie  at  our  feet,  everywhere  in  the  fields 
and  woods ;  just  as  we  need  not  go  into  the  ranks  of 
the  rich  and  great  to  see  conjugal  and  domestic  happi- 
ness, since  it  is  a  gift  equally  to  the  poor  and  humble. 
Thus  we  see  that  a  walk  in  the  country  never  need  be 
without  enjoyment.  Everywhere  we  have  pretty  specta- 
cles of  life  in  action,  and  like  our  own.  And  indeed  it 
often  seems  as  if  the  most  wonderful  illustrations  were 
the  minutest.  Somehow  or  other,  large  things  always 


THE  SLEEP  OF  PLANTS.  27 

seem  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Their  bigness  is  a 
safeguard.  We  admire  them  for  their  grandeur,  but  it 
is  hardly  possible  perhaps  to  love  them  so  much  as  we 
love  what  is  little  ;  and  something  of  the  same  princi- 
ple seems  illustrated  in  the  ways  of  the  Creator,  —  the 
little  is  always  an  object  of  consummate  protection. 

Lastly,  as  regards  the  sleep  of  flowers,  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  those  in  which  the  corolla  appears  to  con- 
sist of  only  one  petal,  as  in  the  foxglove,  do  not  exhibit 
this  beautiful  phenomenon.  The  structure  of  the  blos- 
som precludes  the  possibility  of  it.  Here  we  generally 
see  the  nocturnal  protection  of  the  stamens  and  pistils 
provided  for  by  the  peculiar  shape  of  the  corolla,  and 
by  its  position.  This  kind  of  corolla  is  generally  cave- 
like,  or  the  upper  part  of  it  is  in  the  shape  of  a  great 
hood,  which  shoots  off  the  rain  as  it  falls.  Very  fre- 
quently also  this  kind  of  corolla  is  pendulous,  so  that 
in  its  drooping  position  it  provides  a  natural  self-defence 
for  the  tender  parts  within.  Whether  we  can  discern 
it  or  not,  we  may  be  sure  that  there  is  adequate  and 
beautiful  protection  of  some  kind.  When  we  think 
Nature  has  forgotten,  or  is  partial,  it  is  that  our  own 
eyes  are  dim.  Moreover,  there  are,  in  all  likelihood, 
many  arrangements  in  nature  which  it  is  scarcely  pos- 
sible for  eyes  to  make  out,  but  which  a  reverent  intelli- 
gence may  think  of  from  analogy,  and  admire  as  greatly 
as  if  they  were  visible.  We  do  not  "see"  how  the 
myriads  of  tiny  insects  find  their  food ;  but  that  they 
are  all  endued  at  once  with  good  appetites,  the  satis- 
faction of  which  is  a  delight  to  them,  and  with  abun- 
dance of  good  nutriment,  we  may  be  sure. 


Insects* 


THE  most  populous  part  of  the  empire  of  Nature  is 
that  which  is  occupied  by  the  various  tribes  of  Insects. 
The  little  creatures  which  bear  this  name  are  the  most 
diversified  and  splendidly-adorned  of  living  things. 
Their  histories  are  so  romantic  as  to  exceed  the  wildest 
flights  of  fancy ;  their  habits  and  customs  embody 
everything  that  we  are  accustomed  to  witness  in  the 
larger  animals ;  their  instincts  are  prophetic  types  of 
the  utmost  ingenuities  of  human  reason,  as  brought  to 
bear  upon  what  ministers  to  our  physical  comfort  and 
welfare.  Many  kinds  furnish  substances  of  singular 
excellence  and  beauty,  such  as  honey,  silk,  and  the 
rich  crimson  dye  called  cochineal ;  others  are  so  de- 
structive, when  unchecked  in  their  ravenous  appetites 
and  in  their  territorial  invasions,  that  the  result  of 
years  of  peaceful  growth  is  ruined  by  them  almost 
before  we  are  aware  of  the  attack.  And  yet  we  are 
apt  to  pass  by  insects  as  worthless  and  insignificant ;  — 
we  look  with  pleasure,  it  is  true,  upon  the  lovely  wings 
of  the  butterfly,  and  upon  the  bees,  resting  on  the 
honeyed  bloom,  or  as  they  work  at  their  amiable  task 
with  that  admirable  assiduity  which  makes  them  a  les- 


INSECTS.  29 

son  to  us  all,  if  we  would  "  improve  the  shining  hour ;" 
and  the  sight  is  a  fascinating  one,  even  to  the  incurious, 
when  on  a  warm  summer's  day  the  brilliant  dragon- 
flies  dart  like  winged  javelins  of  blue  steel  among  the 
grasses,  and  meadow-sweet,  and  willow-herbs  that  hide 
the  margin  of  rural  stream  and  river.  But  other  insects, 
so  far  from  being  objects  of  interest,  are  for  the  most 
part  disliked  and  hated,  and  it  is  thought  very  little 
harm  to  suppress  them  summarily  with  the  sole  of  the 
foot.  When  insects  are  positively  injurious  to  man, 
and  when  they  infest  his  dwellings,  of  course  they  must 
be  treated  like  other  vermin.  There  is  no  more  cruelty 
in  putting  certain  little  flat-pattern  creatures  to  death, 
or  in  catching,  if  we  be  sharp  enough,  the  nimble  mem- 
bers of  another  race,  for  the  same  purpose,  so  that  we 
may  thereafter  "be  at  rest,"  than  there  is  in  the  trap- 
ping of  foxes,  or  the  destruction  of  poisonous  serpents. 
Intelligent  and  kind-hearted  interest  in  the  wonderful 
little  beings  which  it  has  pleased  the  All-wise  to  sow  in 
such  vast  multitudes  upon  our  planet,  by  no  means 
requires  endurance  of  such  kinds  as  are  oifensive ;  our 
true  course  should  be  to  consider  the  endless  miracles 
of  beauty  or  of  adaptedness  to  particular  purposes, 
which  we  find  in  Insects  as  a  class,  allowing  our  feel- 
ings of  dislike  to  weigh  with  us  only  where  they  are 
really  deserved. 

Much,  perhaps,  of  the  popular  dislike  of  insects  arises 
from  their  being  seen  under  circumstances  at  once  for- 
eign to  their  nature,  and  painful  to  them.  Garden  and 
rustic  insects,  borne  unwillingly  on  the  breeze,  through 
open  windows,  into  our  houses,  or  losing  their  way, 
3* 


30  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

and  entering  unwittingly  and  probably  frightened,  may 
well  appear  uninteresting.  They  are  out  of  place. 
They  are  like  those  unfortunate  quadrupeds  which 
Italian  organ-boys  carry  about  the  streets.  Could  we 
see  those  identical  monkeys  in  their  native  woods,  play- 
ing forth  their  sprightly  instincts  amid  the  branches, — 
living,  in  a  word,  as  nature  intended  them  to  live,  — 
they  would  no  longer  be  odious.  We  should  perceive 
that  the  tree  was  made  for  the  animal,  and  the  animal 
for  the  tree  ;  we  should  then  be  highly  entertained  and 
be  filled  with  admiration.  Just  so,  in  order  to  form  a 
true  idea  of  insects,  we  should  not  think  merely  from 
the  parasites  and  the  vermin,  the  beetles,  the  meat- 
flies,  and  the  wasps  ;  nor  yet  from  the  long-legged 
Tipula  that  struggles  against  the  window-panes,  con- 
scious only  of  its  imprisonment ;  but  from  their  kindred 
and  from  themselves,  as  inhabitants  of  the  fields  and 
woods  and  waters,  their  proper  homes,  where  they  are 
always  beautiful,  and  which  they,  in  turn,  make  more 
beautiful  by  their  presence.  Whoever  has  enjoyed  the 
sweet  and  serene  delight  of  a  day  in  the  woods,  while 
Midsummer  is  saturating  them  with  sunshine,  would 
sadly  miss  one  of  the  most  charming  attributes  of  syl- 
van life,  were  the  hum  of  their  invisible  myriads  to  be 
hushed  when  he  went  again.  Even  the  still  pools  and 
tiny  lakes,  which  we  admire  for  their  limpid  clearness, 
and  the  sweet  inverted  pictures  that  lie  painted  in  their 
depths,  gain  perhaps  a  richer  beauty  from  the  eccentric 
dances  of  the  water-beetles,  whose  polished  corselets 
twinkle  with  light  like  that  of  dew-drops. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  in  detail  a  few  of  the  facts  of 


INSECTS.  31 

Entomology.  They  are  fully  as  attractive  as  those  of 
Botany ;  and,  being  connected  with  the  history  of 
active  and  conscious  creatures,  they  open  our  percep- 
tions still  more  powerfully  in  regard  to  the  inexpressi- 
ble goodness  of  God. 

We  found,  when  considering  flowers,  that  protection 
is  a  leading  idea  in  relation  to  them.  The  same  princi- 
ple is  manifested  very  wonderfully  in  insects,  especially 
in  the  care  with  which  the  parent  disposes  her  eggs. 
Few  insects  ever  see  their  offspring.  The  blessedness 
of  human  life  consists  in  the  feast  of  the  eyes  of  father 
and  mother,  when  round,  happy  faces  form  a  shining 
circle  in  the  firelight,  and  proud  rich  hope  skips  twenty 
years  for  each,  and  fashions  all  that  is  good  and  noble 
for  their  destiny.  Birds,  that  build  pretty  nests  for 
their  young,  are  probably  happy  in  feeding  the  little 
featherless  occupants.  Brute  creatures  that  give  suck, 
have  been  envied  before  now.  Even  fishes,  even  rep- 
tiles, live  some  time  after  the  birth  of  their  progeny. 
But  insects,  excepting  ants,  wasps,  and  social  bees, 
end  their  little  lives  unknowing  either  progenitor  or 
child ;  every  successive  generation  is  isolated  from  that 
which  precedes  and  follows ;  they  exist,  feed,  repose, 
associate  in  love,  leave  eggs,  and  depart  in  peace. 
Moths,  butterflies,  and  others,  seldom  live  more  than  a 
few  days  after  laying  their  eggs,  and  although  some  of 
their  kinds  do  certainly  survive  for  several  months, 
they  are  only  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  that  insects, 
after  depositing  their  eggs,  very  soon  die.  We  find 
accordingly,  that  the  Divine  Benevolence  has  endued 
the  female  insect  with  the  most  amazingly  acute  knowl- 


•32  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

edge  of  the  wants  that  will  be  felt  by  her  unborn  young, 
when  they  have  no  mother  to  direct  or  provide  for 
them.  The  solitary  bees  and  wasps  (which  constitute 
different  races  altogether  from  those  that  live  in  com- 
panies, and  construct  waxen  or  paper  cities)  labor 
with  inexpressible  industry  in  excavating  cave-like 
nests  in  wood  and  stone,  and  in  building  cradles  of 
clay,  leaves,  cotton,  and  other  materials,  according  to 
their  special  requirements  and  opportunities. 

Other  insects,  though  they  themselves  take  little  or 
no  food,  and  that  little  in  the  shape  of  honey  procured 
from  flowers,  and  which  cannot  be  supposed  to  have 
any  personal  care  about  eating,  deposit  their  eggs  upon 
the  leaves  and  stems  of  particular  plants  which  will 
supply  abundance  of  agreeable  diet  to  the  infant  grubs. 
A  third  set,  not  satisfied  with  depositing  their  eggs  in 
a  place  of  safety,  cover  them  up  tenderly  against  the 
cold  of  winter.  The  female  of  the  gypsy-moth  has  the 
lower  portion  of  her  body  thickly  clothed  with  soft 
down  of  the  color  of  brown  human  hair,  and  with  this, 
while  laj'ing  her  eggs,  she  forms  a  little  bed  for  each, 
detaching  the  hairs  with  consummate  ingenuity,  and 
consuming  about  two  days  in  the  operation.  Her  part- 
ner in  married  life  has  no  such  down  upon  his  body, 
evidently  because  he  would  find  no  such  useful  purpose 
to  apply  it  to. 

The  brown-tail  and  the  golden-tail  moths,  whose  cat- 
erpillars spin  warm  nests  for  themselves  before  winter 
sets  in,  understand  the  importance  also  of  protecting 
their  eggs  from  the  too-great  heat  of  July  and  August, 
at  which  time  they  are  generally  laid,  —  excessive  heat 


33 


being  quite  as  hurtful  as  excessive  cold.  They  adopt 
precisely  the  same  plan  as  that  in  use  among  the  Nea- 
politan peasantry,  who  convey  snow  from  Mount  Vesu- 
vius to  Naples  in  the  midst  of  summer,  —  covering  it 
up  in  wool,  wool  being  a  slow  conductor  of  heat,  and 
preserving  the  snow  unmelted.  The  female  of  each  of 
these  insects  is  possessed  of  a  thick  tuft  of  shining  hair 
upon  her  tail,  in  which  part  she  is  also  provided  with  a 
pair  of  living  tweezers.  The  latter  she  employs  to 
pluck  out  the  former,  a  pinch  at  a  time,  after  which 
she  places  the  egg  in  the  centre,  cements  it  down  and 
smooths  it  over.  Another  curious  kind  of  defence 
from  the  rays  of  the  sun — not  however  on  the  part  of 
the  parent,  but  practised  by  the  child-insect — is  one 
with  which  everybody  who  has  ever  noticed  things  in 
the  country,  is  familiar.  We  allude  to  the  oozing  out  of 
those  little  masses  of  white  froth  which  hang  so  thickly 
upon  the  herbage  of  the  hedge-banks  in  early  summer, 
and  in  the  interior  of  which  we  find  the  cool  little 
tenant.  This  froth  is  popularly  referred  to  the  cuckoo, 
and  commonly  called  "  cuckoo-spit."  The  creature  is 
green,  with  large  and  conspicuous  eyes,  like  those 
which  the  phrenologists  say  are  indicative  of  great  ca- 
pacity for  language.  When  mature,  it  is  brown,  and  if 
its  tail  be  touched  it  will  jump  the  length  of  a  yard. 
In  English  it  is  called  "frog-hopper,"  in  Latin,  Tetti- 
gonia  spumaria. 

The  immense  capacity  for  enjoyment  given  to  every 
creature  in  some  way  or  other,  strikingly  manifests 
itself  when  we  consider  it  in  connection  with  the  insect 
tribes.  Descending  from  the  noble  forms  which  enjoy- 


34  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

ment  possesses  in  man,  through  the  successive  grades 
of  animals  below  him,  we  still  at  every  step  find  repre- 
sentations of  it.  There  is  not  a  creature  unacquainted 
with  gratification,  in  some  shape  or  another.  All  derive 
it  from  the  circumstances  amid  which  they  exist,  which 
fact  quietly  suggests  to  us  that  the  purest  and  most 
lasting  pleasures  are  to  be  found  at  our  very  feet, — 
that  they  are  not  necessarily  the  fruit  of  toil  and  out- 
lay, but  that  they  flow  to  us  out  of  the  very  nature  of 
things,  if  we  will  but  be  content  with  what  is  simple 
and  genuine.  Insects,  above  all  the  minor  creatures, 
seem  to  relish  life.  The  inhabitants  of  the  pretty  shells 
that  strew  the  sandy  expanse  uncovered  by  the  retiring 
waves,  adorning  its  brown  wrinkles  with  sea-born  jew- 
elry, yellow,  white,  and  pink,  no  doubt  have  their  full 
enjoyment  of  existence,  but  one  would  imagine  it  must 
be  marred  by  their  exposure  every  time  they  are  for- 
saken by  the  tide ;  the  little  fishes  that  play  about  in 
the  clear  water-brooks  are  doubtless  brimful  of  satis- 
faction ;  the  lizards  on  the  sand-hills,  glittering  with 
green  and  gold ;  the  tritons  in  the  weedy  ponds,  and 
the  small  birds  that  hide  amid  the  leaves,  no  doubt 
have  in  every  instance  their  abundant  share  of  animal 
happiness  ;  still  they  none  of  them  seem  to  manifest  so 
much  enjoyment  as  insects  do.  This  may  perhaps  be 
accounted  for,  at  least  in  part,  by  the  fact  of  insects 
being  principally — always,  indeed,  when  in  their  per- 
fect form — aerial  creatures.  In  this  respect  they  agree 
with  birds.  All  things,  indeed,  that  get  much  fresh  air, 
and  can  sail  when  they  like,  and  in  whatever  direction 
they  may  fancy, — through  the  sunshine  and  scented 


atmosphere  that  hangs  over  the  green  fields  and  sweet- 
ens the  dear  pastoral  or  healthy  hills  of  the  country  — 
must  needs  have  a  larger  and  wider  sensation  of  phys- 
ical pleasure  than  those  which  are  confined  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  earth,  or  are  unable  to  travel  far  from  a 
given  spot. 

Do  we  not  find  it  so  ourselves?  The  foot  that  is 
familiar  with  the  grass  belongs  usually  to  a  man  of 
lighter  heart  than  he  whose  soles  seldom  wander  from 
the  pavement ;  and  the  best  elixir  vitce  is  a  run,  as  often 
as  we  can  contrive  it,  amid  the  sweets  of  new  and  lovely 
scenery,  where  nature  sits,  fresh  from  the  hands  of  the 
Creator,  almost  chiding  us  for  our  delay.  To  take 
special  instances,  however,  of  the  enjoyment  given  to 
insects,  and  thus  of  the  benevolence  of  Him  who  or- 
dains all  these  good  things,  let  us  cite  the  dancing 
gnats.  Every  one  has  noticed,  in  calm  summer  even- 
ings, what  vast  multitudes  of  these  little  creatures  thus 
disport  themselves.  They  may  be  traced,  while  the 
light  wanes,  till  the  eye  can  follow  no  further,  and  as 
the  motions  evidently  serve  no  purpose  of  sustenance 
or  reproduction,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  object  is 
purely  one  of  pleasure.  Whenever  we  see  the  wings  of 
insects  vibrating,  unless  they  are  actually  using  them 
to  pass  from  one  place  to  another,  we  may  be  assured 
that  it  indicates  the  same  kind  of  pleasant  sensation 
which  induces  the  nestling  sparrow,  when  fed  by  its 
mother,  to  stretch  its  little  pinions,  and  the  lambkin, 
while  sucking,  to  wag  its  tail.  The  birds  called — from 
the  circumstance  of  the  movement  they  make  when 
foedtng — "wagtails,"  would  seem  to  have  a  special 


36  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

pleasure,  as  members  of  the  feathered  tribes,  when  ful- 
filling this  great  instinct  of  their  being.  What  can  be 
more  beautiful  than  the  gayety  and  frolic  of  butterflies 
in  the  air?  They  frisk  about,  ascending,  descending, 
moving  in  every  possible  direction,  performing  zig-zag 
pirouettes  pf  the  most  elegant  and  varied  kind,  just  as 
kittens  do  when  upon  the  ground,  in  their  more  clumsy 
but  not  less  sportive  gambols. 

Here,  again,  there  is  no  purpose  of  direct  physical 
utility  subserved,— the  movements  are  all  tokens  and 
expressions  of  pleasure.  Have  bees  no  pleasure  in 
rambling  from  flower  to  flower,  and  securing  the  sweet 
spoil  for  the  security  of  which  they  have  built  those 
beautitul  little  many-chambered  warehouses  we  call 
honeycombs  ?  Pleasure  always  attends  honest  and  pro- 
ductive labor,  and  it  would  be  contrary  to  all  the  anal- 
ogy and  harmony  of  nature  to  suppose  that  the  bees 
work  with  no  more  enjoyment  than  a  watch  possesses. 
It  is  difficult  to  suppose  that  they  have  not  indeed  a 
pleasure  in  the  exercise  of  their  little  wits,  over  and 
above  that  of  collecting  the  floral  nectar.  We  hardly 
think  what  excellent  botanists  the  bees  arc.  They  do 
not  know  what  "species"  are,  it  is  true;  and  for  the 
matter  of  that,  no  more  do  our  philosophers  and  savans. 
But  they  do  know  how  to  distinguish  "genera,"  and 
may  be  watched  going  from  one  kind  of  flower  to 
another,  as  cleverly  as  if  they  had  received  lessons 
from  a  professor.*  The  physical  allurement  of  course 


*  The  observation  of  my  valued  friend,  Jlr.  E.  Holland. 


INSECTS.  37 

consists  in  the  greater  or  less  quantity  of  honey  that 
particular  kinds  of  flowers  secrete  ;  some  producing  it 
in  large  drops,  others  yielding  only  a  taste.  See,  too, 
how  admirably  the  bees  are  provided  with  instruments 
for  procuring  what  they  desire.  Many  flowers  are  so 
constructed  that  the  bee  cannot  enter  bodily ;  to  meet 
this  difficulty  the  little  creature  is  provided  with  a  long 
sucking-tube,  which  it  can  push  far  down  into  the  blos- 
som, so  as  to  reach  the  contents. 

It  is  beautiful  to  note  how  thoroughly  the  bee  and 
the  flower  are  adapted  one  to  the  other.  They  are  like 
the  old  tree  and  the  woodpecker,  the  fir-cone  and  the 
cross-bill ;  and  it  is  wonderfully  interesting,  too,  that 
in  reading  the  records  of  primaeval  ages,  held  up  to  us 
by  Geology,  we  find  that  it  was  not  until  flowers, 
essentially  so  named,  —  honey-yielding,  fragrant,  and 
painted  flowers, — began  to  unroll  their  sweet  petals  to 
the  sun  of  this  world,  that  the  little  creatures  we  call 
bees  were  introduced  as  members  of  its  animal  popula- 
tion. Trees  and  plants,  as  well  as  animals,  both  small 
and  great,  have  existed  upon  the  surface  of  our  planet 
from  a  past  so  remote  that  no  man  can  speculate  on 
the  date  of  its  beginning ;  but  flowers  have  not  so  ex- 
isted—  at  least  there  is  no  trace  of  them  among  the 
myriad  fossils  that  are  wrapped  up  in  the  rocks  beneath 
us,  while  of  all  other  parts  of  plants,  and  of  organs 
equivalent  to  flowers,  for  the  purposes  of  reproduction, 
there  are  abundant  traces.  Butterflies  also  would  seem 
to  be  a  comparatively  recent  dynasty.  Neither  they 
nor  bees  existed  upon  this  earth  very  long  anterior  to 
the  commencement  of  the  human  period ;  showing 
4 


38  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE, 

again  that  nothing  appears  in  nature  before  it  is  wanted, 
but  that  all  comes  in  at  the  right  time,  and,  when  its 
purpose  is  accomplished,  departs.  It  is  in  this  grand 
fitting  together  of  things,  this  method,  this  universal 
adaptation  and  harmony  of  nature,  that  we  have  the 
best  and  truest  external  evidences  of  its  Divine  origin. 
The  forms  are  superb,  the  colors  are  inexpressibly 
exquisite,  but  it  is  the  unity  of  the  whole  that  impresses 
us  most  deeply. 

A  few  words  respecting  the  life  of  insects  may  not  be 
altogether  superfluous.  And,  first,  as  to  their  changes 
of  shape.  The  larger  animals — quadrupeds,  fishes, 
and  birds — step  into  existence  in  their  perfect  forms, 
diminutive,  it  is  true,  but  still  complete  ;  all  they  want 
is  either  a  little  more  hair,  or  a  robe  of  feathers,  or 
teeth  to  bite  with  after  they  have  been  weaned,  as  the 
case  may  be.  But  insects,  and  several  other  of  the 
lower  tribes  of  creatures,  go  through  a  very  wonderful 
sequence  of  changes.  Every  butterfly  begins  life  as  a 
grub  ;  then  it  becomes  a  "chrysalis  ;"  only  in  its  third 
and  last  stage  is  it  a  winged  creature.  Not  that  the 
grub  is  metamorphosed ;  it  contains  within  its  soft  little 
body  the  whole  of  the  future  butterfly,  and,  when  the 
chrysalid  condition  is  assumed,  the  butterfly  often 
shows  as  plainly  in  it  as  a  flower  while  wrapped  in  its 
calyx.  In  other  words,  the  transition  from  the  grub  to 
the  butterfly  is  not  a  "transmogrification,"  but  a  sim- 
ple casting  away  of  outer  vestments,  and  a  growth  of 
the  immature  creature  within  to  full  and  royal  ripeness. 
This  it  is  which  gives  so  much  beauty  to  the  corre- 
spondence theologians  are  fond  of  pointing  out  between 


INSECTS.  39 

the  life  of  man  and  his  entry  upon  the  angelic  state, 
and  the  gradual  development  of  the  insect.  All  is  in 
man  that  he  will  ever  have ;  "  there  is  a  natural  body, 
and  there  is  a  spiritual  body ; "  the  former  is  cast  off 
by  degrees — first  the  grub  skin,  then  the  chrysalid 
skin ;  lastly,  the  genuine  immortal,  who  was  always 
there,  stands  free  and  unclogged,  and  can  mount  aloft, 
just  as  the  new-born-insect-angels,  with  their  lovely 
wings  —  representative  of  man's  new  and  magnificent 
spiritual  powers  when  he  is  disencumbered  of  his  "  nat- 
ural body"  —  soar  up  sunwards,  our  mortal  eyes  in 
vain  essaying  to  follow. 


EVERYTHING  that  occurs  in  nature  is  the  result  of 
some  law  instituted  to  bring  it  to  pass.  No  phenomena 
are  in  opposition  to  the  laws  of  nature;  nor  are  the 
laws  of  nature  ever  set  aside  in  order  to  bring  about 
conditions  or  circumstances  that  would  be  more  condu- 
cive to  man's  welfare  than  the  operation  of  the  original 
laws  themselves.  Even  "miracles"  are  no  doubt  in 
strict  conformity  with  the  primitive  and  immutable 
scheme  of  Divine  government  which  has  maintained  the 
universe  in  its  integrity  and  sublime  order,  ever  since 
the  time  of  that  sweet  aurora  when  "  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for 
joy;"  and  we  call  them  "super-natural,"  simply  be- 
cause they  are  effected  not  by  suspending  the  laws,  but 
by  exhibiting  the  unaccustomed  powers,  of  nature.  For 
there  is  a  spiritual  law  within,  and  thus  above,  every 
natural  law,  and  which,  being  necessarily  in  perfect 
harmony  with  it,  may  dignify  and  expand  its  operation, 
but  can  never  contradict  it.  If  we  feel  disposed  to 
regard  miracles  as  works  requiring  the  suspension  of 
the  laws  of  nature,  it  is  again  simply  because  we  .do 
not  understand  —  and  in  this  our  present  life  probably 


EXCEPTIONS.  41 

cannot  understand — the  immensity  and  fulness  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  nor  see  how  occurrences  apparently 
quite  at  variance  one  with  another,  may  yet  be  in  har- 
mony, and  be  quite  compatible,  when  viewed  by  the 
light  of  some  grand  and  omnipotent  principle  which 
originates  and  includes  both.  To  take  a  familiar  illus- 
tration :  every  one  knows  that  "  fire  burns,"  and  that  if 
we  touch  what  is  red  hot,  it  will  most  painfully  blister 
the  skin,  and  that,  if  the  contact  be  prolonged  only  for 
a  few  seconds,  the  flesh  will  be  destroyed  with  inex- 
pressible torment.  This  is  the  ordinary  law  of  nature, 
and  what  at  first  sight  we  conceive  to  be  the  whole  of 
the  law  of  nature,  with  respect  to  the  action  of  fire  and 
of  red-hot  substances.  But  if  a  quantity  of  lead  be 
melted,  and  made  so  hot  that  it  seems  incapable  of 
any  further  increase  of  temperature,  the  hand  may  be 
dipped  into  it  without  sustaining  the  slightest  injury, 
without  being  in  the  slightest  degree  burned !  This  is 
well  known  to  chemists ;  and  men  with  nerve  enough 
to  make  the  plunge,  have  many  times  proved  it  to  their 
startled  friends  and  pupils.  This  is  the  eatfra-ordiuary 
law  of  nature  ;  a  law  not  in  antagonism  to  the  ordinary 
law,  but  included  in  the  general  idea  and  constitution 
of  fire,  part  of  which  idea  is  that  fire  can  be  made  so 
hot  as  not  to  burn.  The  miracles,  and  the  usual  order 
and  method  of  nature,  hold,  in  all  probability,  a  similar 
kind  of  relationship,  the  eotfra-ordinary  laws  which  pro- 
mote the  former  being  so  administered  by  the  Divine 
wisdom  as  to  serve  grand  moral  purposes,  and  this  not 
publicly  and  to  excite  admiration,  but  in  quiet  and 
4* 


42  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

solemnity.  Such  at  least  is  the  character  of  the  mira- 
cles recorded  in  Holy  Writ. 

When  accordingly,  we  seem  to  find  the  common  life 
of  the  world  full  of  inconsistencies  and  exceptions,  it 
is  simply  because  we  regard  the  several  occurrences 
from  too  low  a  platform  of  thought.  If  such  wonderful 
contradictions  can  be  exhibited  before  our  eyes  as  that 
of  the  melted  lead  burning  when  it  is  only  heated 
enough  to  run  like  water,  and  not  burning  when  the 
furnace  has  done  its  worst,  or  best,  how  readily  may 
we  believe  that  all  other  things  which  appear  to  be 
inconsistent  one  with  another,  are  in  reality  in  fine 
concord ;  and  that  exceptions  are  only  varied  utter- 
ances of  some  grand  and  simple  ordinance  that  equally 
governs  the  common  and  the  strange.  Every  depart- 
ment of  nature  presents  such  exceptions ;  and  it  is 
delightful  to  a  reflective  and  pious  mind  to  observe  that 
these  exceptions,  like  the  sacred  miracles,  are  uniformly 
charged  with  some  errand  of  love,  or  with  some  new 
gift  from  the  munificence  of  the  All-good.  The  com- 
fort and  enjoyment,  either  of  mankind  or  of  some 
little  creature,  is  always  the  proximate  object ;  and  if 
the  end  be  not  realized,  the  fault  is  with  the  intended 
recipient. 

To  begin  with  the  inanimate  or  inorganic  department 
of  nature.  It  is  well  known  that  all  substances  which 
have  been  heated,  as  they  cool  decrease  in  size,  and 
become  of  greater  specific  gravity ;  or,  in  other  words, 
a  little  smaller,  and  a  little  heavier.  Even  things  that 
are  ordinarily  cold,  become,  under  the  influence  of 
severe  frost,  a  little  smaller.  The  strips  of  iron  that 


EXCEPTIONS.  43 

form  the  path  for  the  wheels  of  the  railway  train  be- 
come shorter  when  the  frost  is  intense  ;  the  pendulum 
of  a  clock,  in  a  room  where  there  is  no  fire,  becomes 
under  similar  circumstances  shorter,  and  the  "  time"  is 
falsified ;  an  iron  rod  that,  while  it  is  red  hot,  exactly 
fits  an  opening,  is  too  small  for  it  when  it  has  cooled. 
The  exception  to  these  usual  phenomena  is,  that  water, 
one  of  the  most  valuable  substances  in  nature,  instead 
of  decreasing  in  volume  as  it,  freezes,  occupies  more 
room  when  it  has  become  ice  ;  and  instead  of  becoming 
heavier  as  it  freezes,  is,  when  in  the  shape  of  ice,  per- 
ceptibly lighter.  See  how  admirably  this  operates  for 
the  advantage  of  man !  Had  water  been  governed  by 
the  rule  that  applies  to  other  substances,  in  winter, 
when  the  thermometer  sunk  to  32°,  or  "  freezing  point," 
the  layer  of  ice  formed  on  the  surface  would  have  im- 
mediately sunk  to  the  bottom;  another  layer  would 
have  taken  its  place,  and  have  similarly  sunk  to  the 
bottom ;  and  in  a  little  while  the  whole  reservoir  would 
have  been  changed  into  a  solid  mass,  which  no  subse- 
quent summers  could  have  thawed,  and  the  world 
would  soon  have  become  uninhabitable,  for  want  of 
drink.  As  it  is,  the  water  is  preserved  in  its  fluid 
form,  and  warm  enough  for  use ;  while  the  surface 
oilers  a  play-ground  for  boy  and  man,  agreeable  in  its 
novelty  and  in  the  excitement  of  the  exercise  needful 
to  keep  the  body  afloat.  Sea-water  does  not  freeze  till 
it  is  nearly  four  degrees  colder  than  fresh  water  needs 
to  be  before  congealing,  thus  assisting  to  keep  the 
ocean  open  at  all  seasons. 
Mark,  in  the  next  place,  the  curious  nature  of  quick- 


44  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

silver,  or  mercury.  A  very  considerable  degree  of  heat 
is  required  to  melt  every  other  kind  of  metal ;  but  mer- 
cury becomes  fluid  with  no  more  heat  than  is  supplied 
by  the "  atmosphere  of  England !  In  the  Arctic  re- 
gions, and  wherever  else  the  temperature  sinks  to  — 39, 
or  seventy-one  degrees  below  freezing-point,  mercury 
is  solid,  resembling  a  lump  of  silver,  or  any  other  white 
and  shining  metal.  There  it  needs  fire  to  bring  it  into 
the  fluid  condition  ;  but  in  our  own  happy  island, — 

"  Great,  glorious,  and  free, 
First  flower  of  the  earth,  and  first  gem  of  the  sea," 

and  in  all  countries  of  similar  and  even  of  harsher  cli- 
mate, so  long  as  the  intense  rigor  of  the  frigid  zone  is 
never  experienced,  mercury  is  permanently  molten. 
Hence,  we  can  use  it  for  the  construction  of  the  ther- 
mometer, measuring  every  delicate  change  in  the  warmth 
of  the  air,  and  in  the  temperature  of  substances  used 
in  the  processes  of  arts  and  manufactures,  which  could 
scarcely  be  attempted  without  the  aid  of  this  wonderful 
instrument.  'Quicksilver  is  one  of  the  most  extraordi- 
nary substances  in  nature.  It  supplies  one  of  the  dead- 
liest of  poisons,  and  one  of  the  most  potent  of  medicines. 
It  is  the  delight  of  children,  as  its  globules  roll  prettily 
up  and  down  the  tea-tray,  chasing  one  another  like 
themselves  in  their  swift-footed  sports,  and  reflecting 
every  happy  little  face  that  peers  into  their  tiny  yet 
brilliant  mirrors  ;  man  sees  in  it  an  emblem  of  the 
heavenly  flock  that  in  this  present  life  is  broken  into 
particles  innumerable,  kept  asunder  by  the  dust,  the 
hindrances,  the  misunderstandings,  the  infirmities  of 


EXCEPTIONS.  45 

the  life  in  the  body,  but  which  are  yet  all  of  one  sub- 
stance and  purpose,  spherical  and  bright,  in  their  souls ; 
and  which,  though  the  sport  of  the  world,  and  called 
by  many  names, — Ephesian  and  Laodicean,  Episcopa- 
lian and  Independent,  —  shall  yet  resolve,  when  assem- 
bled by  Him  who  sitteth  as  the  Refiner  and  Purifier, 
into  glorious  and  everlasting  unity. 

One  other  illustration  from  the  inorganic  world,  and 
we  conclude.  While  quicksilver  melts  with  the  first 
kiss  of  solar  warmth,  platinum  defies  the  utmost  heat 
of  the  crucible.  Hence,  by  the  art  of  the  welder,  it 
can  be  manufactured  into  little  cups  and  other  vessels 
that  are  required  to  endure  the  intensest  fire,  serving 
purposes  of  recondite  chemistry  which  without  it  could 
never  be  achieved. 

In  the  vegetable  kingdom  this  admirable  arrangement 
attracts  us  at  all  points.  The  idea  of  a  plant,  when 
developed  with  all  its  parts  complete,  includes  root, 
stem,  leaves,  flowers,  an.l  seed.  But  every  one  of 
these  parts  is  at  times  found  to  be  wanting,  so  far  as 
palpable  and  visible  reality  is  concerned ;  some  plants 
being  exceptionally  destitute  of  root,  others  of  stem, 
others  of  leaves,  &c.  The  absence  of  the  respective 
parts  gives  an  exquisite  variety  and  gracefulness  to  the 
face  of  nature,  such  as  no  poet  can  describe,  and  no 
painter  depict  on  his  canvas.  Were  plants  always 
anchored  to  the  ground  by  genuine  roots,  the  mistletoe 
would  hang  no  golden  bough  amid  the  gray  and  tat- 
tered thorns  and  apple-trees  of  mid-winter,  a  crowd  of 
living  pearls  entangled  amid  branches  that  wear  the 
semblance  of  death ;  no  lichens  would  enrich  the  old 


46  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

tower  and  dismantled  castle  with  time-stains  of  purple 
and  orange  that  make  the  deep  sheen  of  the  faithful 
ivy  yet  more  lustrous  in  its  contrasted  verdure ;  nor 
would  orchids  dwell,  like  birds,  amid  the  boughs  of 
tropical  trees,  adorning  the  vigorous  one  with  rich 
hues,  and  scenting  it  with  composite  and  warm  aroma, 
alike  foreign  to  its  personality,  and  rendering  the  de- 
crepit far  more  beautiful  in  decay  than  it  stood  even  in 
the  prime  of  its  existence.  The  orchids  are  well  known 
to  the  lovers  of  choice  flowers.  After  the  forget-me- 
not,  the  maiden-hair  fern,  and  the  pretty  uncurling 
leaves  of  our  own  old-fashioned  English  ferns,  com- 
forted with  brown  plumage  till  they  are  strong  and  tall, 
there  are  none  that  form  such  links  of  pleasure  between 
the  giver  and  the  receiver.  It  is  not,  however,  so  well 
known  that  in  their  native  woods  they  are  strictly  aerial 
plants,  —  that  is  to  say,  that  they  perch  themselves  in 
the  clefts  of  the  boughs,  deriving  their  nourishment 
from  the  air  and  from  the  decaying  organic  matter  that 
lodges  around  them,  and  that,  if  planted  in  earth, 
many  of  them  will  not  live. 

Of  stemless  plants  we  have  examples  in  innumerable 
field  flowers,  and  in  many  flowers  of  the  garden,  such 
as  the  tulip  and  the  crocus.  They  have  flower-stalks, 
certainly,  but  they  have  no  proper  stem.  To  this  class 
of  plants  is  mainly  owing  the  sweetly- variegated  vesture 
that  conceals  the  soil,  providing  turf  in  the  meadow 
and  lawn,  embroidery  for  them  when  summer  comes, 
and  tapestry  of  moss  for  the  flanks  of  the  waterfall. 
Fancy  the  aspect  of  a  country  where  the  earth  was 
perennially  like  a  street,  or  a  newly-ploughed  field,  or 


EXCEPTIONS.  47 

a  newly-gravelled  garden-walk,  and  the  figment  will  be 
that  of  a  world  without  stemless  plants  ;  —  the  flowers 
and  the  fruit  aloft,  reserved  for  men  ;  no  sea  of  daisies 
for  the  tiny  ones  in  spring ;  no  loved  small  hands  over- 
flowing with  bluebell  and  wood  anemone — to  a  child 
the  blossoms  of  paradise  itself.  Among  the  stemless 
plants  are  many  acrid  ones.  The  herbage  of  the  fields 
is  by  no  means  the  exclusively  sweet  and  juicy  fodder 
we  may  deem  it.  Buttercups  are  quite  the  reverse  of 
sweet.  The  pastoral  animals  eat  but  few  of  them,  and 
then  apparently  as  condiments  to  the  succulent  and 
insipid  grass,  just  as  we  ourselves  take  pepper  and  salt 
to  our  meat  and  potatoes.  How  beautiful,  again,  the 
exception  in  regard  to  many  of  those  low-growing 
plants,  when  specially  and  directly  serviceable  to  man, 
that,  unlike  the  enduring  Trees, — those  great,  grand 
pillars  which  watch  the  rise  and  fall  of  generations, — 
they  last  only  for  a  year.  Wheat,  barley,  peas,  beans, 
turnips,  carrots,  if  not  annual,  are  only  biennial.  They 
must  be  sown  fresh  and  fresh  every  year ;  so  that  man, 
instead  of  living  without  employment ;  thence  lapsing 
into  indolence  ;  thence  into  evils,  from  which  occupa- 
tion preserves  him,  as  he  would  most  certainly  do,  did 
his  daily  bread  drop  off  trees  into  his  mouth,  like  acorns 
on  to  the  pigs'  refectories  in  the  woods — instead  of 
this,  is  kept  continually  engaged,  tilling  the  soil,  depos- 
iting the  seed,  reaping,  threshing,  grinding,  baking. 
These  occupations  call  others  into  play.  The  general 
stimulus  to  all  the  powers  of  the  mind  shows  itself  in 
inventions,  art,  and  sciences ;  and  to  the  exceptional 
circumstance  of  the  staff-of-life  growing  upon  an  annual 


48  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

instead  of  a  perennial  plant,  man  may  ascribe,  under 
Providence,  a  large  measure  of  his  civilization,  the  best 
temporal  sign  of  which  is  the  neatness  and  complete- 
ness of  his  breakfast  and  dinner  table  arrangements. 
As  the  moral  culture  of  a  community  may  always  be 
judged  of  by  its  treatment  of  women,  so  may  the  civil- 
ization of  a  people  or  nation  by  the  mode  in  which  it 
takes  its  food. 

Further,  it  is  noticeable  among  these  little  plants  of 
the  fields,  that,  while  most  of  the  members  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom  give  out  such  odor  as  they  may  have 
power  to  during  life,  the  vernal-grass,  the  woodruff,  and 
others,  are  not  fragrant  till  they  have  been  torn  away 
from  their  roots,  and  have  begun  to  get  dry.  The  rose, 
the  lilac,  the  Daphne,  and  the  acacia,  pour  forth  their 
perfume  as  a  part  of  their  day's  duty.  The  woodruff, 
that  holds  up  handfuls  of  little  white  crosses  in  the 
pleasant  woods  and  shady  glens,  yields  no  scent  till  its 
life  has  ebbed — beautiful  emblem  of  those  who  delight 
us  while  they  live,  out  of  the  serene  abundance  of  their 
kindly  hearts,  but  whose  richer  value  we  only  begin  to 
know  when  they  are  gone  away,  and  of  whose  white 
souls  we  then  say  inwardly,  "He,  being  dead,  yet 
speaketh."  So  the  haj-.field,  that  rolls  like  sea  waves, 
is  scentless  when  we  pass  it  uncut ;  we  hear  the  meas- 
ured sweesh  of  the  scythe,  death  lays  each  green  head 
low,  and  odor  rises  like  mist. 

The  tall  trees  have  their  exceptional  brethren  no  less 
than  the  dwarf  plants.  Some,  instead  of  denuding 
themselves  when  autumn  comes,  keep  their  leaves  all 
through  the  winter.  We  call  them  "evergreens,"  and 


EXCEPTIONS.  49 

at  Christmas  decorate  our  houses  with  their  cheerful 
branches.  Save  for  their  green  solace,  the  world  would 
look  very  bleak  and  bare  ;  as  it  is,  the  exception  passes 
us  comfortably  through  the  sense  of  winter,  and  we 
feel  over  again  that  no  deluge  is  ever  so  dreadful  but 
that  some  little  ark  still  floats  upon  the  water,  and 
keeps  life  and  hope  intact.  Look  at  that  venerable 
lime-tree !  All  other  trees  spread  their  branches  far 
and  wide,  and,  as  long  as  they  live,  if  we  go  under 
them,  and  cast  our  eyes  upwards,  we  can  see  more  or 
less  of  the  sky,  or  at  least  there  is  plenty  of  room  for 
us  to  climb ;  but  the  interior  of  an  aged  lime-tree  is 
filled  with  little  twigs,  that  form  quite  a  brushwood. 
This  impervious  labyrinth  offers  a  secure  asylum  for 
the  smaller  birds,  when  pursued  by  hawks ;  once  in- 
side, they  can  never  be  got  at,  and  can  rest,  and  go 
forth  at  will  to  renew  their  minstrelsy.  Thorny  trees 
and  bushes,  which  also  are  exceptional  to  the  general 
structure  of  plants,  offer  similar  asylums  to  little 
birds. 

The  rule  is  that  leaves  shall  be  green.  Wherever  we 
cast  our  eyes,  the  prevalent  hue  is  that  of  tiie  grass, 
unless  when  burned-up  by  the  scorching  heat  of  sum- 
mer, or  concealed  by  the  white  snow-mantle  of  Christ- 
mas, and  even  then  we  are  reminded  of  it  by  the 
laurel,  the  holly,  and  other  trees  which  are  not  forsaken 
by  their  foliage  in  October.  But  the  leaves  of  some 
plants  and  trees  are  not  green.  "When,  for  instance, 
the  garden  amaranths  creep  out  of  the  ground,  they 
are  of  a  fine,  lively  red ;  and  this  color  they  retain  in 
every  part  of  their  fabric  till  they  die.  In  good  green- 
5 


50  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

houses  and  conservatories  there  are  many  such  plants, 
i.  e.,  plants  dyed  of  some  strange  rich  hue  which  quite 
upsets  the  definition  of  a  plant  as  "a  green  thing." 
Nature  will  not  allow  herself  to  be  defined.  When  we 
think  we  have  constructed  our  definitions  so  carefully 
that  they  are  accuracy  itself,  and  have  marked  out  our 
boundaries  and  dividing  lines,  and  then,  quitting  our 
chairs,  go  abroad  into  living  nature,  the  work  is  found 
to  have  been  vain ;  some  odd  plant  or  animal,  as  the 
case  may  be,  is  sure  to  be  detected  walking  through 
the  fences  ;  we  invariably  discover  that  we  only  "  know 
in  part ; "  and  when  the  larger  knowledge  has  been  ob- 
tained, and  we  again  compare  our  schemes  with  nature, 
still  it  is  the  same, — mystery  within  mystery,  hill  be- 
hind hill,  more  and  yet  more  islands  in  the  infinite 
archipelago  of  truth  and  wonder. 

Among  the  most  beautiful  of  these  painted-leaf-plants 
are  the  various  kinds  of  Begonia,  which  upon  the  under 
side  are  often  of  a  deep  claret  color,  while  the  upper 
surface  is  marked  with  silvery  spots  and  arches.  Some 
kinds  of  Caladium  have  their  leaves  exquisitely  dyed 
in  the  centre  with  crimson ;  others  have  crimson  spots 
and  blotches.  The  young  leaves  of  the  Dracaena  are 
rose-color  ;  those  of  certain  Crotons  are  variegated  with 
rose  and  yellow.  All  this  is  quite  exceptional,  and  the 
peculiarity  is  accompanied  in  most  'cases  by  another, 
namely,  the  comparative  insignificance  of  the  flowers 
of  these  painted-leaved  plants.  It  would  seem  that  the 
grand  principle  of  equal  gifts  to  every  living  creature 
was  here  intended  to  be  palpably  illustrated.  Where 
the  foliage  is  plain  and  simple,  green  without  inlay  of 


EXCEPTIONS.  51 

purple  or  other  tint,  the  flowers  are  in  most  cases 
showy  and  ornamental ;  where,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
foliage  is  so  deeply  enriched  that  it  looks  more  like 
flowers,  then  the  actual  blossoms  are  ordinarily  of  little 
pretension.  Everywhere  in  nature  is  this  kind  distri- 
bution maintained.  The  man  who  is  clever  in  lan- 
guages is  often  inapt  for  physical  science ;  when  the 
hand  can  execute  beautiful  drawings,  or  make  dull 
wires  and  woodwork  give  forth  delicious  music,  there 
is  often  inaptitude  for  metaphysics.  Every  one  has 
something  bestowed  which,  if  faithfully  and  honorably 
cultivated  and  diffused,  shall  be  the  admiration  of  an- 
other ;  no  one  need  envy,  for  he  has  that  in  himself 
which  is  also  enviable,  if  he  will  only  be  true  to  his 
own  powers  and  duties.  These  pretty  plants  with  their 
deep-hued  leaves,  need  not  sigh  for  the  blossoms  of  the 
camellia  or  the  tulip ;  they  are  in  themselves,  though 
relatively  flowerless,  a  banquet  for  all  taste  and  capacity 
of  delight. 

Lastly,  a  few  words  upon  remarkable  exceptions  in 
connection  with  animals.  Most  creatures  reside  per- 
manently in  their  native  countries ;  but  some  kinds 
change  their  quarters  every  spring  or  autumn,  going  to 
warmer  or  cooler  regions,  according  as  their  instinct  of 
self-protection  prompts  them.  Hence,  in  early  summer, 
our  ears  are  saluted  with  the  sweet  cry  of  "  Cuckoo !" 
Hence,  in  winter,  we  see  birds  of  northern  origin, 
Scandinavian  strangers,  little  claws  that  have  clung  to 
Lapland  birches,  and  wings  that  have  flapped  near  ice- 
bergs. What  tales  of  travel,  were  they  gifted  with 
words !  One  of  the  most  useful  of  birds  gives  us 


52  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

"Wlien  these  are  boiled,  the  contents  coagulate,  and 
become  pleasant  food ;  all  other  things,  when  boiled, 
become  soft. 

When  we  contemplate  the  organic  provision  made 
for  the  nourishment  of  her  young  by  the  female  ani- 
mal, we  find  it  numerically  proportioned  to  the  num- 
ber of  her  offspring  at  a  birth,  or  to  the  occasional 
number.  Woman  has  two  breast-fountains,  the  cow 
has  four;  yet  the  progeny  of  the  cow  is  rarely  in- 
creased by  more  than  two  at  a  time,  and  usually  by 
only  one.  The  exceptional  excess  is,  apparently,  for 
the  use  of  man ;  for  whose  service  also  the  bees  store 
a  larger  quantity  of  nectar  than  they  require  for  their 
own  consumption;  and  the  law,  "flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,"  is  shown  to  be  a  far-thought-of  gift  of  the 
Divine  Benevolence.  Woman  is  exceptional  to  all 
other  animals  in  her  matchless  capacity  of  nurse  to  her 
young.  All  other  creatures  that  give  suck,  soon  wean 
their  offspring,  and  leave  them  to  shift  for  themselves. 
Not  so  the  most  sacred  servant  of  God.  In  those  long 
yet  patient  hours  when  we  lie,  poor,  helpless,  thankless 
little  things,  wailing  in  the  darkness ;  loved  the  more 
tenderly,  pressed  the  more  closely  to  our  infant  home, 
white  as  a  snow-drop,  and  warm  as  the  heart's  best  life- 
blood —  ah,  what  a  river  of  affection  bursts  from  its 
heavenly  spring,  pouring  on  past  all  the  years,  believ- 
ing all  that  is  good  and  noble,  and  ever  listening  for 
it — forgiving  all  that  is  weak  and  erring,  pleading  till 
the  heart  well  nigh  breaks  that  the  disobedient  may 
be  turned  to  the  wisdom  of  the  just ;  for  it  is  love  that 
would  surrender  life  itself  rather  than  enter  heaven 


EXCEPTIONS.  53 

desolated  "  because  they  are  not."  A  mother's  love 
is  distinguished  from  all  others  in  this,  that  it  over- 
runs, from  the  beginning,  time  and  the  world,  and 
looks  to  the  eternal  home  where  both  shall  live  for- 
ever. 

5* 


CjjemistrjK 


HITHERTO  we  have  given  our  attention  almost  exclu- 
sively to  the  objects  and  phenomena  of  living  nature  ; 
we  will  now  look  for  a  little  while  at  the  marvellous  dis- 
coveries of  chemistry,  that  magnificent  science  which 
unfolds  the  laws  and  composition  of  the  inorganic  and 
inanimate  portion  of  the  world.  Chemistry,  in  its  won- 
derful disclosures,  and  the  experiments  by  which  we 
are  made  familiarly  acquainted  with  its  principles,  ap- 
proaches so  nearly  to  "magic,"  that  had  some  of  the 
more  curious  knowledge  of  to-day  been  possessed  by 
the  philosophers  of  the  middle  ages,  they  would  assur- 
edly have  been  dealt  with  as  sorcerers.  In  an  enlight- 
ened age,  men,  if  they  cannot  follow  the  quick  steps  of 
those  who  lead,  still  admire  their  powers  and  achieve- 
ments ;  in  a  dark  age,  the  speed  and  insight  are  attrib- 
uted to  some  supernatural  and  perhaps  unholy  aid,  and 
the  true  and  beautiful  become  objects  of  hatred  and 
persecution ;  just  as  in  all  ages,  in  regard  to  theology 
and  all  the  highest  truths  connected  with  man's  eternal 
welfare,  that  which  a  man  sunk  in  sensualities  of  neces- 
sity cannot  see  the  fulness  and  radiance  of,  seems  to 
him,  contrariwise,  only  black  and  unprofitable  error. 


CHEMISTRY.  55 

It  is  possible  to  freeze  water  in  a  red-hot  crucible,  let- 
ting the  lump  of  ice  fall  out  upon  the  table  while  the 
vessel  in  which  it  was  formed  still  glows  with  the  action 
of  the  fire ;  it  is  possible  to  produce  upon  a  parlor- 
table  light  that  shall  seem  brilliant  as  a  fragment  of 
sunbeam ;  it  is  possible,  yea,  and  very  easy,  to  prepare 
a  powder  that  on  being  shaken  out  of  the  glass  tube  in 
which  it  is  preserved,  takes  fire,  atom  by  atom,  simply 
by  coming  in  contact  with  the  air !  One  of  the  simplest 
and  prettiest  experiments  for  winter-evening  amuse- 
ment by  the  fireside  is  the  setting  lumps  of  a  certain 
metal  in  a  blaze  by  merely  touching  them  with  a  drop 
of  cold  water !  Had  these  things,  we  repeat,  been  ex- 
hibited when  men  who  had  science  and  thought  enough 
to  discover  the  wonders  of  nature  were  impeached  of 
communication  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  what  would 
have  been  the  result  and  their  fate  !  Many  have  suf- 
fered imprisonment  and  stripes  for  the  promulgation  of 
truths  and  discoveries  not  so  wonderful.  Let  us  be 
thankful  that  the  Divine  wisdom  withholds  the  knowl- 
edge of  such  things  till  mankind  is  able  to  receive  it 
reverently,  neither  suspecting  the  origin  nor  buffeting 
the  instrument,  and  is  able  moreover  to  apply  it  to 
high  practical  uses,  at  once  inviting  the  imagination  to 
further  inquiry,  and  supplying  new  proof  of  the  Benev- 
olence that  everywhere  guides  and  overrules. 

This  Benevolence  shows  itself  in  inorganic  nature 
under  two  principal  forms,  viz.,  the  composition  of  sub- 
stances, and  their  action  and  reaction  upon  one  another. 
The  presence  of  every  primary  element  can  instanta- 
neously be  detected ;  and  if  it  be  a  poisonous  substance 


56  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

k_ 

that  we  are  dealing  with,  we  know  pretty  well  how  to 
neutralize  the  bancM  operation  it  would  exert.  Al- 
though when  we  look  at  nature  in  the  mass,  the  materi- 
als of  which  it  is  composed  seem  infinitely  diversified, 
and,  practically,  no  doubt  are  so,  yet  on  analyzing 
them,  we  find  that  the  absolutely  different  elements  do 
not  exceed  seventy.  It  is  much  the  same  with  the 
composition  of  the  world  as  with  that  of  language. 
There  are  scores,  yea,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  differ- 
ent words  in  constant  utterance  by  mankind  in  their 
various  countries.  English  alone  has  tens  of  thousands 
of  words  in  it ;  yet  how  few  are  the  letters  of  the  alpha- 
bet that  are  required  for  their  construction  !  By  varied 
intermixture  of  the  simple  twenty-six  letters  which 
form  our  first  lesson  at  school,  all  that  is  needful  for 
daily  talk  is  produced  —  all  that  is  needful  to  express 
the  highest  and  loveliest  sentiments,  the  most  recondite 
propositions,  the  most  brilliant  insights  of  poetry. 
First,  these  little  letters  are  combined  into  syllables ; 
the  syllables  are  united  in  twos  and  threes ;  they  are 
variously  arranged,  multiplied  and  repeated,  and  an 
inexhaustible  vocabulary  is  the  result.  It  is  precisely 
the  same  with  the  composition  of  the  objects  of  na- 
ture. The  seventy  primitive  elements  correspond  to 
the  twenty-six  alphabetical  sounds  and  characters. 
Some,  like  q  and  z,  occur  comparatively  seldom  ;  other 
elements,  like  a  and  e,  are  incessantly  in  demand. 

The  first  result  of  the  mixture  of  these  elements  is 
found  in  water,  lime,  salt,  soda,  &c.  When  these  are 
blended,  entirely  new  compounds  result ;  and  the  blend- 
ing of  these  again,  gives  the-*  infinitely  diversified  ma- 


COEXISTS  T.  57 

terials  the  analysis  of  which  introduces  the  chemist  to 
the  mysteries  of  his  fascinating  science.  The  bodies 
of  all  animals,  trees,  plants,  and  flowers  are  similarly 
compounded  of  a  few  of  the  primitive  elements,  by  suc- 
cessive processes  of  combination,  the  new  compounds 
often  presenting  few  or  no  traces  of  the  qualities  which 
marked  their  atoms  before  being  united.  Man  is  well 
called  the  "  noblest  work  of  God."  Aristotle  defined 
him  as  the  "  imitative  animal ; "  other  philosophers  have 
called  him  the  "cultivating,"  the  "bargain-making," 
the  "cooking"  animal;  the  chemist  describes  him  as 
an  elaborate  compound  of  carbon,  nitrogen,  water,  lime, 
and  phosphorus,  with  a  little  iron,  &c.,  superadded ; 
and  reduced  to  the  ultimate  analysis,  in  truth,  his  ma- 
terial body  is  nothing  besides,  since  the  blood,  the 
muscles,  the  bones,  the  nails,  and  the  hair,  are  only  so 
many  exquisite  mixtures,  prepared  by  the  agency  of 
Life  direct  from  Him  in  whom  we  move  and  have  our 
being,  and  moulded  by  the  fingers  of  infinite  wisdom 
into  shapes  of  absolute  perfection,  and  of  incomparable 
adaptedness  to  the  noble  purposes  for  which  they  are 
designed.  Similarly,  the  lovely  and  fragrant  rose  is 
composed  of  no  more  than  carbon  and  water,  some 
ammonia,  and  perhaps  a  little  iron ;  and,  when  disin- 
tegrated in  the  chemist's  laboratory,  can  be  presented 
as  a  few  grains  and  drops  of  colorless  relic. 

How  wonderful  the  guiding  and  controlling  power 
that,  out  of  dull  and  inanimate  materials  such  as  these, 
can  weave  shapes  so  transcendently  beautiful,  filling 
them  with  energy  to  perform  their  comely  uses,  and, 
when  those  uses  have  been  fulfilled,  and  they  die,  caus- 


58  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  MATURE. 

ing  other  things  to  rise  from  their  ashes  !  For  it  is  not 
only  a  fact  that  the  objects  of  nature  are  made  out  of  a 
few  elements — they  are  positively  made  out  of  identi- 
cally the  same  particles,  taking  turn  with  one  another. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  single  atom  of 
matter  has  been  added  to  material  nature  since  it  pleased 
the  Creator  to  dispose  it  in  its  present  form  ;  it  is  cer- 
tain that  not  a  single  atom  has  passed  out  of  existence  ; 
in  other  words,  the  bulk  and  weight  of  our  planet  and 
its  enveloping  atmosphere  are  precisely  the  same  to-day 
that  they  were  thousands  of  years  ago,  when  things 
"began,"  whatever  the  date  of  that  beginning ;  and  yet 
during  those  multitudinous  years,  countless  millions  of 
plants  and  animals  have  run  their  little  race  of  life, 
have  died,  decomposed,  and  returned  to  the  dust. 
Where  has  the  material  come  from  ?  It  has  been  sim- 
ply the  old  material.  Every  atom  has  done  duty  over 
and  over  again ;  to-day  entering  into  the  composition 
of  a  tree  or  flower,  next  year  into  that  of  an  animal ; 
after  that,  perhaps  wandering  in  the  air  for  awhile ; 
by-and-by  re-appropriated  into  the  fabric  of  a  plant  or 
bird ;  in  fact,  enduring  like  a  piece  of  money,  unaltered 
in  itself,  but  passing  incessantly  from  place  to  place  : 
to-day — resuming  the  metaphor  of  the  coin — a  widow's 
mite,  to-morrow  part  of  the  heaped-up  treasures  of  a 
Croesus.  Our  very  breath  is  of  this  nature.  The  atmos- 
phere we  inhale  is  not  of  original  English  birth,  nor 
does  it  abide  permanently  in  England.  Part  of  it  has 
been  sifted  through  the  branches  of  the  cedars  of  Leba- 
non ;  part  of  it  has  been  moistened  with  the  spray  of 
the  unpastured  sea,  a  thousand  leagues  from  where  we 


CHEMISTRY.  59 

stand ;  when  we  have  done  with  it,  by  degrees  it  will 
move  away,  on  the  wings  of  the  wind,  to  supply  nutri- 
ment to  people  of  whom  we  know  nothing  but  that  they 
live,  and  to  many  a  blossom  "bora  to  blush  nnseen." 
In  its  history  it  is  an  image,  viewless,  but  faithful  as  if 
wrought  in  perfect  marble,  of  the  whole  economy  of 
material  nature,  vicissitudes,  wanderings,  and  transfor- 
mations, all  included.  No  portion  is  ever  lost ;  and 
though  the  whole  never  comes  again  intact,  we  have  it 
renewed  without  ceasing. 

Let  us  now  cite  a  few  examples  of  the  operation  of 
the  Divine  Benevolence  with  respect  to  the  power  given 
to  man  to  detect  the  various  elements  of  nature. 
Every  substance  is  discoverable  by  some  "  test,"  which 
usually  neutralizes  it,  or  rather,  which  by  uniting  with 
it,  forms  a  new  compound.  The  whole  fabric  of  chem- 
istry rests  upon  this  wonderful  principle,  as  one  of  its 
corner-stones.  Thus,  if  the  least  fragment  of  copper 
be  dissolved  in  acid,  and  the  fluid  be  then  diluted  with 
water  until  no  trace  of  color  remains,  so  potent,  never- 
theless, is  the  affinity  of  ammonia  for  the  copper,  that 
a  single  drop  of  the  latter  fluid  will  immediately  reveal 
the  presence  of  the  metal,  by  uniting  with  it,  and  form- 
ing a  new  substance  of  the  loveliest  violet  color.  Simi- 
larly, if  a  morsel  of  lead  be  dissolved  in  acid,  and  the 
acid  be  then  diluted  with  water,  a  single  drop  of  a  solu- 
tion of  iodide  of  potassium  will  turn  the  whole  to  a 
brilliant  crocus-yellow.  The  presence  of  iron,  after 
the  same  manner,  is  discovered  by  the  least  drop  of 
tincture  of  galls,  which  blackens  it  upon  contact ;  that 
of  silver  by  a  little  solution  of  common  salt,  which 


60  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

causes  flakes  of  imitative  snow  to  make  their  appear- 
ance ;  that  of  mercury  again  with  iodide  of  potassium, 
which  turns  the  fluid  containing  it  to  a  beautiful  red. 
Every  one  of  these  tests  is  reciprocal;  that  is  to  say, 
we  discover  the  presence  of  galls  by  administering  a 
little  solution  of  iron  ;  and  of  ammonia  by  introducing 
a  little  copper.  The  test  for  zinc  is  remarkably  curi- 
ous. A  drop  of  ammonia  causes  a  white  cloud  in  the 
watered  solation  of  the  metal,  but  in  a  few  moments,  if 
we  shake  it,  the  cloud  dissolves,  and  the  fluid  becomes 
clear  and  limpid  as  before  !  The  value  of  these  simple 
facts  to  the  science  of  chemistry  cannot  possibly  be 
over-estimated.  Every  substance,  in  the  hands  of  the 
magician  of  the  laboratory,  is  a  new  Spear  of  Ithuriel, 
extorting  confession  on  the  instant  of  the  character  of 
that  which  is  touched  with  it ;  and  as  no  two  results  of 
"testing"  in  different  directions  are  absolutely  alike, 
the  chemist  is  provided  with  an  infallible  clue  to  all  the 
realities  of  the  composition  of  things.  How  grand 
and  inexhaustible  does  the  Divine  Wisdom  appear, 
when  we  discover  the  humblest  and  commonest  sub- 
stances in  nature  to  be  connected  by  ties  of  affinity 
which  a  little  child  may  bring  to  light ;  which  are  yet 
so  mysterious  as  to  captivate  the  philosopher,  at  the 
same  moment  that  they  provide  him  with  his  initial 
keys  of  knowledge.  By  means  of  these  "tests,"  we 
can  detect  all  kinds  of  mineral  poisons.  No  deadly 
substance  can  lie  so  deeply  concealed  as  to  evade  an- 
swer when  called.  Hence  the  difficulty,  now-a-days, 
of  administering  poison  without  discovery.  Though 
months  may  have  elapsed  after  the  commission  of  a 


CHEMISTRY.  61 

murder  by  mineral  poison,  the  traces  may  be  found ; 
some  "test"  will  declare  what  has  been  done,  and  what 
kind  of  poison  has  been  employed.  Along  with  this 
there  is  another  great  fact  to  be  considered.  The 
"  tests "  which  prove  the  presence  of  the  poison  often 
possess  the  power,  if  used  in  time,  of  neutralizing  its 
effect.  This  is  the  case  with  oxalic  acid,  a  deadly 
poison  not  infrequently  given  by  mistake  of  ignorant 
people  for  Epsom  salts.  A  small  quantity  of  lime- 
water  being  added,  the  acid  and  the  earth  combine,  a 
white  powdery  substance  is  formed  in  a  moment,  and 
this,  being  insoluble,  is  perfectly  harmless.  So  with 
the  burning  and  corrosive  fluid  called  sulphuric  acid, 
one  of  the  most  important  of  known  substances,  alike 
for  the  purposes  of  chemistry  and  for  those  of  many  of 
the  useful  arts.  If  a  drop  be  spilled  upon  the  table  or 
upon  the  fingers,  the  instant  that  a  similar  drop  of  any 
solution  of  the  earth  called  baryta  is  added  to  it,  the 
burning  property  is  neutralized,  and  we  have  a  milk- 
white  product  incapable  of  doing  harm. 

No  man  need  complain  of  the  existence  in  this  world 
of  so  many  hurtful  and  deadly  things,  when  he  reflects 
how  ready  and  certain  are  the  antidotes.  Wherever 
there  is  an  evil,  there  is  always  for  the  intelligent  mind 
some  compensating  good.  No  winter  is  so  cold  but  its 
asperities  are  outbalanced  by  the  sweets  of  summer. 
While  the  nettle  is  preparing  the  sharp  sap  that  makes 
its  sting  so  virulent,  the  dock  is  preparing  another  sap 
that  shall  assuage  the  pain.  In  chemistry  we  see  more 
perhaps  of  this  grand  principle  than  in  any  other  de- 
partment of  natural  knowledge,  since  the  effects  are 
6 


62  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

here  at  once  instantaneous,  varied  almost  without  end, 
and  impossible  to  be  misconceived.  It  brings  palpably 
before  us,  over  again,  the  fewness  and  the  universality 
of  the  principles  of  the  Divine  government ;  all  phe- 
nomena resulting  in  manifestations  of  bountiful  care 
for  the  happiness  and  health  of  man,  and  all  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  natural  world,  being  no  other  than  the 
economic  laws  of  the  moral  world  played  forth  in  pic- 
tures and  representations.  See,  again,  how  beautifulty 
the  union  of  chemical  elements,  when  placed  in  juxtu- 
position,  becomes  subservient  to  the  highest  purposes 
of  human  sympathy,  in  connection  with  invisible  writ- 
ing !  When  the  remnant  of  English  troops,  left  after 
the  disasters  at  Cabool,  some  fifteen  years  ago,  were 
shut  up  in  a  fort,  surrounded  and  vigilantly  watched  by 
their  enemies,  they  managed  nevertheless  to  send  brief 
letters  to  their  nearest  friends.  These  letters  to  ap- 
pearance were  only  blank  pieces  of  paper.  But  they 
were  covered  with  words  traced  with  rice-water  instead 
of  ink,  every  word  becoming  visible  in  bright  blue  when 
the  paper  was  washed  over  with  iodine !  This  wonder- 
ful substance,  iodine,  has  the  property  of  turning  starch 
blue  or  violet  color ;  and  as  rice  contains  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  starch,  an  invisible  ink  prepared  from 
it  assumes  that  hue  when  touched  with  iodine,  though 
previously  quite  colorless.  Eventualities,  such  as  the 
imprisonment  adverted  to,  are  quite  as  much  a  part  of 
the  system  of  nature  as  the  most  ordinary  occurrences, 
and  all  are  anticipated  in  these  simple  and  beautiful 
laws. 

The  nourishment  of  our  bodies  consists  in  a  series  of 


CHEMISTRY.  63 

chemical  actions.  Some  portion  of  our  food  goes  to 
the  formation  of  flesh  and  blood  ;  another  portion  con- 
tributes to  the  substance  and  solidity  of  the  bones ;  a 
third  portion  is  fuel.  In  this  latter  contrivance  we 
have  a  most  striking  illustration  of  the  simplicity  and 
perfection  of  the  Divine  ordinances.  There  is  no  life 
without  warmth,  and  warmth  comes  of  the  combination 
of  certain  elements,  a  process  incessant  in  the  human 
body,  and  consisting  in  no  more  than  the  chemical 
union  of  "  oxygen  "  and  u  carbon  "  —  the  latter  the  chief 
constituent  of  fat,  and  the  former  inhaled  continuously 
as  part  of  the  air.  Every  time  we  breathe  we  quicken 
the  burning  of  the  "flame  of  life,"  which  is  thus  main- 
tained quite  unconsciously.  When  we  "  hold  our 
breath,"  we  thereby  slacken  the  supply  of  oxygen ;  and 
when  we  cease  to  take  food,  we  reduce  the  supply  of 
carbon,  each  being  equally  requisite  with  the  other  to 
maintain  the  cheerful  glow  that  we  call  our  animal 
heat.  Thus  is  one  of  the  most  agreeable  sensations  of 
life  a  simple  result  of  chemical  action,  the  materials 
broken  up  into  atoms  so  minute  as  to  be  invisible  to 
the  most  powerful  microscope,  but  all  obeying  the 
great  behest  that  all  things  shall  work  together  for 
the  comfort  of  the  world  and  of  mankind,  and  thus 
for  the  glory  of  Him  who  hath  created  them  "for  His 
pleasure." 


©tgperston  of  plants  upon  tfje  jFace  of 
tije 


TRAVELLERS,  on  their  return  from  the  exploration  of 
distant  countries,  tell  us  of  every  conceivable  diversity 
of  climate  and  of  terrestrial  surface.  Those  who  have 
penetrated  the  Arctic  circle  describe  snows  almost 
perennial,  and  a  region  so  inhospitable  that  everything 
necessary  to  support  human  life  must  be  carried  thither ; 
those  who  bring  home  the  browned  faces  that  show  the 
intensity  of  Indian  sunshine  tell  of  arid  and  sandy 
plains  from  which  every  particle  of  moisture  appears  to 
have  been  evaporated  long  ages  ago.  Some  give  us 
accounts  of  huge  mountains  where,  at  midsummer,  the 
white  mantle  of  mid- winter  still  lingers  undissolved, 
though  at  the  base  it  is  fervid  summer,  all  lati- 
tudes being  represented  in  miniature  during  the  course 
of  a  few  thousand  feet  of  vertical  ascent ;  others, 
again,  tell  us  of  countries  where  rain  does  not  fall  for 
a  dozen  years  at  a  time,  and  where  the  surface  of  the 
ground  is  covered  with  crystallized  salts.  Wonderful 
is  this,  whatever  the  associations  under  which  it  is 
regarded ;  more  wonderful  yet  is  the  fact  that  every 

64 


THE  DISPERSION  OP  PLANTS.  65 

spot  of  earth,  hot  or  cold,  high  or  low,  is  supplied  with 
vegetation  at  once  appropriate  and  ornamental.  No 
place  is  incapable  of  supporting  vegetable  life  of  some 
kind  ;  and  although  there  are  districts  where  grass  and 
trees  are  never  seen,  and  perpetual  desolation  gives  the 
idea  of  their  being  worn-out  and  effete,  as  happens  in 
the  great  deserts  in  the  interior  of  northern  Africa  — 
even  there  it  is  not  so  much  an  absolute  incapacity  to 
sustain  life,  as  the  want  of  springs  of  water  that  causes 
the  absence  of  it.  In  those  sweet  spots  which  have 
become  a  metaphor  for  all  happy  and  blessed  breaks  in 
the  history  of  trouble  and  sorrow, — the  "oases"  of  the 
desert,  —  water  is  present,  and  vegetation  is  triumphant. 
Such  an  "oasis"  was  Elim,  where  "there  were  twelve 
wells  of  water,  and  threescore  and  ten  palm-trees." 

How  marvellous,  then,  in  our  eyes,  does  that  Divine 
power  and  wisdom  again  become,  which  provides  a 
fitting  vesture  of  plant  and  flower  for  every  spot  of 
earth,  yea,  and  a  vegetable  population  for  every  stream 
and  pond  of  water,  for  every  lake  and  every  sea, 
whether  salt  or  tasteless.  Hot  springs  have  their  vege- 
table inhabitants  no  less  than  cold  rivers  and  chill}' 
cascades.  The  driest  acres  of  Arabia  have  plants  con- 
genial to  them,  no  less  than  the  broad  plains  of  happy 
islands  like  our  own,  where  in  spring  we  may  watch 
"  from  field  to  field  the  vivid  verdure  run."  It  does  but 
carry  out  beautifully  and  intelligibly  before  our  very 
eyes  that  the  Creator  not  only  formed  and  created  the 
earth,  but  formed  it  "to  be  inhabited."  The  idea  of 
"habitation"  may  seem  to  signify  families  of  mankind, 
and  no  doubt  it  does  so  in  the  first  and  inmost  mean- 
C* 


66  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

ing,  but  a  large  and  philosophical  and  reverent  reading 
of  the  text,  will  connect  with  it  the  families  also  of 
the  humbler  portion  of  living  nature,  or  animals  in  all 
their  variety,  and  not  animals  only,  but  the  families  of 
trees  and  plants.  All  these  has  HE  created  "  for  his 
pleasure,"  and  though  we  may  not  understand  the  mode 
and  the  degree  of  their  ministration,  still  may  we  be 
assured  that  the  flourishing  existence  of  crowds  of 
happy  animals — happy,  that  is,  in  the  enjoyment  of 
their  peculiar  life — and  of  myriads  of  blooming  and 
lovely  plants,  is  an  integral  part  of  that  Divine  pleas- 
ure ;  and  thus  that  the  races,  in  all  their  diversity,  of 
quadrupeds  and  birds,  fishes,  and  all  the  little  denizens 
of  earth  and  sea,  together  with  those  of  all  plants,  are 
essentially  included  in  the  general  term  of  inhabitants 
of  our  planet,  and  were  given  to  it  in  order  that  they 
might  dwell  upon  it  and  decorate  it.  In  the  present 
paper  we  shall  endeavor  to  show  that  the  connection  of 
plants  with  the  surface  of  our  earth  is  in  no  respect  a 
less  admirable  fact  than  that  of  their  existence,  and 
that  the  laws  and  arrangements  by  which  the  connec- 
tion is  maintained,  rank  with  the  most  striking  in  an}' 
department  of  the  science  of  nature. 

The  great  physical  stimuli  of  vegetable  growth  arc 
light  and  heat — a  noteworthy  fact  when  regarded  in 
relation  to  the  correspondence  that  light  and  heat  bear 
to  the  exciting  and  sustaining  physical  forces  of  which 
we  every  day  feel  the  glory  as  Divine  wisdom  and 
Divine  love.  Where  there  are  most  heat  and  light, 
trees  and  flowers  of  all  kinds  are  most  plentiful  and 
most  splendid — always  provided  that  there  is  an  ade- 


THE  DISPERSION  OF  PLANTS.  67 

quatc  supply  of  moisture;  where  heat  and  light  are 
deficient,  there  we  see  poverty  and  dwarfishness.  In 
the  tropics  the  forests  are  more  majestic  than  any  one 
accustomed  only  to  the  woods  of  northern  Europe  can 
possibly  conceive,  many  of  the  trees  clothing  them- 
selves with  leaves  as  large  as  dinner-tables ;  while  the 
flowers  that  are  poured  forth  from  every  branch  and 
twig  are  finer  than  lilies.  By  people  coming  from  the 
extreme  north,  on  the  other  hand,  our  English  lilacs 
and  laburnums  are  regarded  as  miracles  of  size  and 
loveliness ;  for  in  the  frigid  zone,  although  there  are 
"flowering  plants"  with  hard  and  woody  stems,  answer- 
ing so  far  to  the  idea  of  slirubs,  they  never  rise  more 
than  a  few  inches  above  the  ground.  Dr.  Clarke  brought 
from  Scandinavia  six  full-grown  birch-trees  in  his  pock- 
etbook ;  and  the  greater  part  of  the  Arctic  willow  is  to 
be  found,  not  in  the  air,  but  below  the  surface  of  the 
soil !  It  is  much  the  same  at  the  extreme  south  of  the 
great  American  continent.  Near  Cape  Horn,  trees 
which  in  latitudes  a  little  warmer  allow  of  the  traveller 
walking  underneath  them,  become  so  diminutive,  and 
stand  so  thick  together,  as  he  ascends  the  mountain 
higher  and  higher,  that  at  last  he  may  walk  upon  their 
tops ! 

It  is  very  important  to  observe  here  that  it  is  the 
combined  agency  of  light  and  heat  that  produces  the 
wonderful  results  seen  in  the  tropics,  again  inviting 
our  minds  to  the  contemplation  of  the  grand  corre- 
spondence above  alluded  to.  Clear  and  brilliant  light 
often  brings  out  exquisite  colors,  as  happens  among 
the  Alps  and  also  in  the  north  frigid  zone,  where  the 


68  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

humble  little  plants  called  lichens  and  mosses  ^re  in 
man}-  cases  dyed  of  the  most  brilliant  hues,  purple  and 
gold  predominating.  Warmth,  in  like  manner,  will 
stimulate  vegetable  growth  in  the  most  astonishing 
manner,  but  it  is  growth  not  necessarily  accompanied 
by  the  secretion  of  valuable  substances,  such  as  give 
quality  and  real  importance  to  the  plant.  In  English 
hot-houses,  for  example,  we  have  abundance  of  spice- 
trees,  those  generous  plants  that  yield  cinnamon  and 
cassia,  the  nutmeg  and  the  clove  ;  but  although  healthy 
and  blossoming  freely,  they  never  mature  their  aromatic 
secretions.  Though  they  have  artificial  heat  equal  to 
that  of  their  native  islands,  which  burn  beneath  the  sun 
of  the  Indian  Ocean,  we  cannot  supply  them  with  sim- 
ilar and  proportionate  solar  light.  Our  cloudy  skies 
shut  us  in  from  the  full  and  direct  radiance  of  the  sun- 
shine, and  wanting  this,  heat  alone  will  not  avail. 

Next  to  be  considered,  as  greatly  influencing  the 
distribution  of  plants  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  is 
the  varying  height  of  its  different  portions  above  the 
level  of  the  sea.  It  is  a  very  interesting  fact,  and  one 
familiar  to  those  who  travel  much,  even  within  the  area 
of  the  British  Islands,  that  the  plants  of  lofty  moun- 
tains are,  to  a  considerable  extent,  quite  different  from 
those  which  enamel  the  fields  that  lie  at  their  feet ;  the 
cold,  the  damp,  caused  by  their  frequent  immersion  in 
the  clouds,  and  the  rarer  atmosphere,  being  congenial 
to  different  kinds.  Mounting  the  steep  slopes  of  Snow- 
don  or  Helvellyn,  we  soon  come  to  vegetable  forms 
that  are  never  seen  in  the  lands  below ;  and  in  Scot- 
land the  number  of  such  new  forms  is  again  greatly 


THE  DISI'ERSION  OF  PLANTS.  69 

augmented.  In  warm  countries,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
is  very  curious  to  observe  how  close  is  the  agreement 
between  a  certain  number  of  yards  of  vertical  eleva- 
tion, with  the  departure  so  many  degrees  north  or  south 
from  the  equator.  On  the  mountain-chain  of  which 
Mount  Ararat  is  the  most  important  geographical  point, 
all  the  varieties  of  vegetation  betwen  Syria  and  the 
North  Pole  may  be  observed  by  any  one  patient  enough 
to  ascend  from  base  to  summit.  At  the  foot  of  Mount 
Ararat  there  arc  the  vine,  the  olive  and  the  fig,  the 
palm  also,  and  the  orange.  A  little  way  up,  these 
fruits  cqase  to  ripen,  and  their  place  is  taken  by  the 
trees  and  plants  of  central  Europe ;  a  little  further, 
again,  those  of  Russia  and  Norway  make  their  appear- 
ance ;  by-and-by  the  vegetation  of  Scandinavia  becomes 
predominant,  and  the  crown  of  the  mountain  is  lost  in 
unmelting  snow — a  North  Pole  reached  by  vertical 
ascent  instead  of  by  a  long  journey  through  seventy 
degrees  of  latitude.  The  analogy  of  a  great  snow- 
capped mountain  in  any  tropical  country  with  either 
the  northern  or  southern  hemisphere  is  most  complete. 
The  base  answers  to  the  equatorial  zone ;  the  middle 
portion  answers  to  the  temperate ;  and  the  summit  an- 
swers to  the  frigid.  In  a  word,  our  planet  is  like  two 
vast  tropical  mountains  sliced  off  at  the  base,  and  so 
conjoined  as  to  let  their  summits  be  the  two  poles,  the 
arctic  and  the  antarctic  respectively. 

Soil,  and  the  geological  composition  of  the  ground 
below,  have  also  great  influence  upon  the  vegetation  of 
a  district ;  for  plants,  like  animals,  have  their  appro- 
priate food.  True,  to  the  great  mass  of  plants,  it  is  a 


70  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

question  of  little  moment.  They  grow  freely  in  every 
kind  of  soil,  and  hence  the  colored  fantasy  of  the 
fields,  in  which  plants  grow  inextricably  mingled.  It 
remains  true,  nevertheless,  that  many  kinds  require 
certain  mineral  constituents  in  the  soil,  in  order  that 
they  may  attain  perfection ;  while  others  prefer  certain 
geological  formations,  on  account  of  the  easier  drainage 
or  the  greater  retentiveness  of  water.  It  is  interesting 
to  see  how  the  plants  of  widely-separated  districts  often 
agree,  when  the  soil  is  the  same,  or  nearly  so.  Many 
of  the  wild-flowers,  for  example,  of  St.  Vincent's  Rocks, 
at  Clifton,  are  seen  but  sparingly,  or  not  at  all,,  after  we 
quit  Gloucestershire  on  our  way  northwards,  until  we 
come  close  upon  the  sea-margin  of  North  Wales.  Then 
they  are  found  again,  and  save  for  the  new  landscape, 
we  might  almost  fancy  ourselves  breathing  the  soft 
sweet  air  of  Durdham  Down.  The  rocks  and  soil  of 
these  two  districts  are  in  many  respects  closely  similar, 
and  their  products  illustrate  the  harmony  that  so  often 
subsists  between  the  earth  and  vegetation.  It  is  no 
small  part  of  the  Divine  Benevolence  thus  to  distribute 
and  marshal  the  substances  and  objects  of  nature  ;  for 
to  the  exiled  and  expatriated  there  are  sweet  and  fond 
sights  produced  as  a  consequence  of  it,  that  oftentimes 
make  amends  for  the  severance,  and,  by  association, 
import  the  distant  into  the  present.  What  an  induce- 
ment, moreover,  to  the  study  of  nature  !  If  the  sound 
of  a  national  melody  heard  in  a  far-distant  land  awaken 
all  tender  recollections  of  the  dear  fields  so  many 
leagues  away,  no  less  so  does  the  spectacle  of  the  trees 
and  flowers  that  were  the  delight  of  our  youth,  when 


THE  DISPERSION  OF  PLANTS.  71 

we  behold  them  in  the  remote  spot  of  our  adoption. 
Anything  whatever  that  animates  the  soul  with  a  secret 
pleasure,  whether  it  come  through  the  medium  of  sight 
or  of  sound,  of  poetry,  or  science,  or  philosophy,  of 
thought  or  of  reading,  or  of  intercourse  with  our  fellow- 
men,  or,  though  last  not  least,  of  the  little  wild-flowers, 
is  a  fine  expression  and  result  of  the  Divine  Benevo- 
lence in  little  things,  in  which  we  should  rejoice  and 
for  which  we  should  be  grateful.  Oue  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  ennobling  of  all  joys  and  satisfactions  is 
the  joy  of  being  grateful  to  God ;  and  nothing  makes 
us  more  truly  human  than  the  accustoming  ourselves 
to  find  reasons  for  and  inducements  to  such  joy  in  the 
little  and  miscalled  "insignificant"  and  trifling  things 
of  nature.  All  are  made  for  our  personal  enjoyment, 
and  to  help  us  onwards  into  manliness  and  humanity  of 
spirit,  and  they  will  effect  that  result  if  we  will  open 
our  hearts  to  their  influence. 

Very  curious  indeed  are  the  special  arrangements  by 
which  the  seeds  of  plants  are  conveyed  from  place  to 
place,  thus  providing  for  the  permanency  of  the  green 
carpet.  Many  kinds  are  provided  with  delicate  feathery 
wings,  which  the  wind  soon  seizes  upon,  carrying  them 
for  miles  over  the  country.  Every  one  in  the  heavenly 
era  of  early  youth  has  blown  the  little  ships  from  the 
dandelion  into  the  aerial  sea,  curious  merely  to  learn  the 
time  of  day,  and  unconscious  that  by  this  little  pastime 
the  great  purposes  of  nature  were  being  assisted.  It  is 
true  that  in  many  of  the  plants  which  have  these  winged 
seeds,  we  do  not  recognize  any  special  usefulness  to 
man ;  and  the  means  provided  for  their  wide  dispersion 


72  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

may  look  like  good  labor  bestowed  to  little  genuine 
purpose  of  benevolence  ;  but  we  are  not  to  judge  of  the 
usefulness  of  a  thing  by  what  it  yields  directly  and 
immediately  to  man.  The  population  of  the  earth 
includes  millions  of  creatures  besides  ourselves,  and 
anything  that  seems  useless  to  us  is  no  doubt  invalu- 
able to  some  other  race.  Here  it  may  be  remarked  too, 
in  passing,  that  the  existence  of  so-called  "  useless 
things"  is  one  of  the  grand  proofs  of  another  and 
nobler  state  of  being.  They  are  outbirths  of  a  nobler 
world,  and  have  a  destiny  and  purpose  of  their  own ;  if 
they  are  useless  in  our  eyes,  they  may  be  of  great  use 
in  the  eyes  of  otfier  creatures  of  God — if  not  in  this 
outer  world,  yet  in  the  inner  one  where  their  spiritual 
forms  exist,  and  whence  they  operate.  Birds  and 
insects  carry  seeds  about  almost  as  busily  as  the  wind. 
The  rough  and  hairy  coats  of  quadrupeds  often  come  in 
contact  with  and  capture  the  burrs  of  certain  plants, 
which  thus  get  conveyed  unintentionally  for  thousands 
of  miles,  or  even  half  round  the  globe.  Rivers  and  all 
running  waters  perfonn  a  similar  use  ;  multitudes  of 
plants  are  found  growing  upon  their  banks,  the  seeds 
of  which  have  been  brought  by  the  current  from  distant 
localities,  and  being  stranded  when  the  water  is  low, 
they  find  at  once  an  anchorage  and  an  abiding-place 
for  growth.  There  are  even  plants  that  can  jerk  and 
dart  out  their  seeds  like  shots  from  tiny  guns,  for  the 
purpose  of  their  wider  dispersion  !  Touch-me-nots  and 
cardamines  form  quite  a  miniature  artillery  when  ripe, 
discharging  their  little  batteries  with  a  vigor  that  is 
quite  facetious.  All  these  things,  let  us  never  -forget, 


THE  DISPERSION  OF  PLAXTS. 


73 


are  special  arrangements  for  promoting  the  beauty  of 
the  world,  for  clothing  it  with  green  and  graceful  life, 
and  for  thus  carrying  out  the  designs  of  Infinite  Wis- 
dom and  Infinite  Love. 

The  water,  like  the  land,  is  filled  with  vegetation,— 
that  is,  everywhere  except  in  the  open  sea,  and  even 
there  may  often  be  found  abundance  of  the  strange 
marine  plants  called  Algae.    Half-way  across  the  Atlan- 
tic there  is  an  enormous  submerged  forest  of  one  kind 
in  particular,  called  "gulf-weed,"  from  its  connection 
with  the  great  "gulf-stream"  that  makes  its  way  from 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.    This  mass  of  weeds  is  so  dense 
as  sometimes  to  impede  the  progress  of  ships;  and 
when  encountered  by  Columbus,  in  that  wonderful  ex- 
ploring voyage  westwards  which  was  rewarded  by  the 
discovery  of  the  sentinel-islands  of  America,  it  was 
thought  by  the   superstitious  sailors  to  be  a  barrier 
speedily  placed  there  by  an  angry  Providence,  to  pre- 
vent their  further  passage,  or  at  all  events  to  warn 
them  from  prosecuting  the  attempt  to  cross  the  sea. 
Similarly,  in  the  remotest  portions  of  the  antarctic 
ocean,  there  are  prodigious  sea-weeds  with  stems  of  the 
girth  of  a  man's  body,  and  branches  that  extend  through 
the  water  to  an  almost  indefinite  distance.     Our  Eng- 
lish coasts  show  two  classes  of  these  curious  and 
interesting  plants.     First,  there  are  the  dark  leathery 
weeds  which  form  tapestry  for  the  sea-washed  cliffs, 
and  float  so  beautifully  in  the  foamy  water  when  the 
tide  comes  up  to  salute  them.     Secondly,  there  are  the 
lovely  green  and  rose-colored  weeds  that  are  seldom 
more  than  a  few  inches  in  length,  and  which  we  may 
7 


74  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  XATUKE. 

see  lying  about  on  the  sands  like  fragments  of  roses,  or 
in  exquisite  arabesque  of  pink  fibres.  Were  we  to 
seek  them  in  their  native  habitats,  or  while  growing, 
we  should  find  them  erect  and  displayed,  forming  a 
parterre  for  the  sea,  in  its  way  no  less  lovely  than  are  the 
flower-gardens  of  the  land.  Every  portion  of  the  shore 
is  inhabited  by  its  peculiar  species  of  these  delicate 
algae.  At  high- water  mark  we  see  the  great  black 
thongs  of  the  bladder-wrack,  and  the  pea-green  laver ; 
at  low-water  mark  and  in  the  tide-pools,  we  have  the 
pink  and  roseate  kinds,  for  these  latter  die,  like  so 
many  fishes,  if  removed  from  the  incessant  contact  of 
the  water,  and  soon  bleach  into  melancholy  films. 
Ponds,  rivers,  even  ditches,  have  their  special  vegeta- 
ble inhabitants.  Where  the  water  is  clear  and  still, 
there  are  water-lilies,  anchored  far  from  the  land,  and 
often  with  beautiful  spires  and  campaniles  of  other 
plants  rising  among  them,  like  a  floral  Venice.  No 
timorous  hand  reaches  these.  As  "faint  heart  never 
won  fair  lady,"  so  may  it  be  said  of  the  water-lilies. 
To  secure  these,  it  is  of  no  use  to  stand  on  the  brink 
and  sigh.  Ingenuity  and  perseverance  will,  neverthe- 
less, bring  them  to  land,  and  then  how  lovely  and  pure 
a  form !  The  white  water-lily  is  closely  allied,  both  in- 
form and  nature,  to  that  mystic  Lotus  of  the  Nile,  rep- 
resentatives of  which,  carved  in  stone,  are  still  pre- 
served upon  the  monuments  of  Egypt,  where  the  plant 
was  regarded  as  a  sacred  and  natural  hieroglyph,  and 
where,  doubtless,  its  purity  and  lustre  conveyed  their 
right  and  ample  meaning. 

The  water-lilies  never  grow  in  foul  water,  and  always 


THE  DISPERSION  OF  PLANTS.  75 

prefer  that  which  is  in  steady  though  slow  movement, 
loving  especially  the  little  bays  along  the  edges,  where 
they  can  spread  their  broad  leaves  upon  the  surface 
undisturbed,  and  expand  their  argent  cups,  brimming 
with  golden  stamens,  to  the  light  of  the  sun.  Towards 
evening  they  close  their  petals  in  a  kind  of  sleep,  and 
during  the  period  of  their  highest  life,  which  is  that  of 
the  preparation  of  the  seed  that  is  to  renew  the  plant, 
they  not  only  close,  but  sink  below  the  surface  of  the 
stream.  In  many  kinds  the  odor  is  rich  and  delicate, 
and  some  sorts  yield  eatable  seeds.  The  Egyptian 
Lotus  bore  a  rose-colored  flower;  but  that  does  not 
interfere  with  the  beautiful  concordance  of  these  plants 
with  the  ideas  of  truth  and  chastity — rather  does  it 
confirm  the  correspondence.  Clear  and  moving  water, 
broad  and  elegant  leaves,  pure  white  or  rose-colored 
flowers,  odor,  modesty  of  life,  and  withdrawal  in  times 
of  darkness — how  beautifully  all  these  characteristics 
of  the  water-lily  and  the  lotus  combine  to  show  us  what 
they  signify  in  the  language  of  nature ! 

What  a  contrast  with  the  sea-weeds  is  found  in  tf  ees ! 
Here  in  the  north  all  our  trees  are  much  branched,  and, 
when  full  grown,  form  grand  umbrageous  sun-shades, 
to  which  we  can  retire  for  shelter  when  the  summer 
heats  fall  fiercely  upon  our  cheeks ;  their  boughs  in 
many  cases  decline  elegantly  towards  the  ground,  so 
that  we  can  reach  their  nuts  and  acorns ;  and  in  win- 
ter, when  they  have  cast  aside  their  foliage  for  awhile, 
we  see  a  wonderful  diversity  in  their  styles  of  archi- 
tecture ;  some  are  massive,  and  seem  to  belong  to  the 
heroic  ages,  as  the  oak  and  the  chesnut ;  others,  like 


76  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

the  birch  and  the  acacia,  are  graceful  and  delicate,  and 
seem  feminine  companions  of  the  manly  ones.  In  the 
tropics,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  not  only  brandling 
trees  such  as  those  of  the  north,  though  enormously 
greater  in  their  development,  but  trees  that  are  wholly 
devoid  of  branches,  rising  like  tall  pillars  of  wood,  per- 
fectly erect,  and  to  a  prodigious  height,  with  a  crown 
of  immense  leaves  upon  the  very  summit.  These  arc 
the  palm-trees,  the  princes  of  the  equatorial  zone,  as 
the  pine  and  cedar  trees  are  the  princes  of  the  tem- 
perate zones.  In  England  we  only  see  them  in  conser- 
vatories, as  at  Kew  and  Chatsworth.  They  want  much 
more  light  and  natural  atmospheric  warmth  than  are 
ever  rendered  to  them  in  Britain,  and  thus  form  a 
peculiar  and  magnificent  characteristic  of  the  tropics, 
filling  the  traveller  with  admiration,  and  awakening  all 
his  sense  of  tropical  grandeur  of  vegetation. 

"  Yet  who  in  Indian  bower  bath  stood, 
But  thought  on  England's  good  green  wood; 
And  breathed  a  sigh,  how  oft  in  vain, 
To  gaze  upon  her  oaks  again  1 " 

In  the  extreme  north  of  Europe,  and  in  the  northern 
parts  of  America,  there  are  forests  consisting  exclu- 
sively of  pines  and  firs,  and  of  such  vast  area  that 
many  days'  travel  is  required  to  traverse  them.  Thejr 
are  evergreen ;  the  animals  and  birds  inhabiting  them 
are  very  few ;  human  habitations  are  scarcely  known, 
except  upon  their  borders,  where  they  adjoin  cultivated 
or  pasture  land ;  and  hence  they  form  at  once  the  most 
monotonous  of  woods  and  the  sublimest  of  solitudes. 


THE  DISPERSION  OP  PLANTS,  77 

It  is  here,  as  during  the  darkness  of  night,  in  solitary 
places  down  by  the  sea,  when  we  have  wandered  away 
from  the  sound  of  men  and  the  view  of  lamps,  that  we 
feel  the  littleness  of  ourselves  and  the  brevity  of  this 
temporal  life.  Everything  around  is  grand,  solemn, 
and  perennial ;  we  are  driven  inwards  upon  ourselves, 
and  live  for  the  time  in  that  little  secret  chamber  which 
we  all  have  in  the  inmost  of  our  hearts,  .into  which 
only  God  and  ourselves  can  enter,  and  where  we  meet 
face  to  face.  Even  our  English  woods,  in  their  green 
depths  and  inexpressible  seclusion,  give  much  of  this 
feeling  when  we  enter  them  alone  ;  and  it  is  good  to  do 
so,  and  to  receive  their  healthy  and  happy  influences. 
Our  English  woods  differ  greatly  from  those  silent 
pine-woods  in  the  abundance  of  their  living  creatures, 
and  equally  so  in  the  plenty  of  their  flowers  and  ferns. 
Hence  there  is  much  to  attract  the  eyes  and  thoughts ; 
but,  over  and  above  all,  there  is  the  inexpressible  feel- 
ing of  the  isolation,  and  the  nearness  of  Him  who 
made  them  all.  It  is  well  to  visit  these  great  solitudes, 
for  no  places  more  powerfully  awaken  us  to  the  Divine 
appeal,  "Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet 
hast  thou  not  known  me,  Philip  ?  " 

Thus  do  we  find  in  all  countries  of  the  world,  upon 
land  and  in  water,  plants  appropriate  to  their  several 
stations,  and  every  place  being  rendered  cheerful  and 
beautiful  by  their  presence.  What  would  have  been 
the  case  had  plants  all  required  an  equal  amount  of 
warmth  and  protection,  or  an  equal  amount  of  moist- 
are?  Many  spots  would  have  been  barren,  and  the 


78  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

enjoyments  of  man  have  been  reduced  in  proportion. 
But  go  where  we  will,  we  meet  with  new  illustrations 
of  the  Divine  Benevolence — the  true  idea  of  the  omni- 
presence of  God  is  that  in  every  place  we  find  the  man- 
ifestations of  His  providence. 


Disclosures  of  tljr  fHtcroscopc. 


MENTION  has  more  than  once  been  made  in  the  pre- 
ceding papers  of  the  exquisite  and  marvellous  spec- 
tacles presented  through  the  medium  of  the  microscope. 
We  propose  now  to  describe  some  of  these  in  detail, 
since  it  is  through  the  use  of  this  miraculous  instru- 
ment that  we  ai-e  enabled  to  view  not  merely  the  little 
things  of  nature,  but  the  otherwise  unknown.  "We  de- 
light in  the  consideration  of  how  much  our  eyes  behold 
— trees,  animals,  the  sea,  the  sky,  flowers,  the  unfath- 
omable beauty  of  the  human  soul,  as  set  forth  in  the 
various  expression  of  the  countenance,  when  the  spirit 
lives  in  light  and  freedom  ;  we  are  apt  to  overlook  the 
fact  that  our  unassisted  eyes  do  not  introduce  us  to  more 
than  the  half  of  the  world  in  the  midst  of  which  we  dwell ; 
thus  that  we  delight  in  what  is  really  no  more  than 
very  partial  knowledge.  And  if  intelligent  and  loving 
interest  in  the  obvious  things  of  nature  possess  the 
power — as  we  are  assured  that  it  does  by  those  who 
have  tried — of  giving  length  to  human  existence,  by 
multiplying  ideas,  which  constitute,  after  all,  the  only 
realities  in  life,  how  grand  an  elixir  vitce  must  be  sup- 
plied by  the  delicate  and  unconsidered  atoms  that  exist 


80  THE  LITTLE  TH1XGS  OP  NATURE. 

beyond  the  line  to  which  our  ordinary  vision  reaches. 
Possibl}',  were  the  e}*e  of  man  so  formed  as  for  him  to 
behold,  without  the  aid  of  its  lenses,  the  minute  organ- 
isms that  the  microscope  brings  into  view — possibl}-  it 
might  not  then  be  able  to  pierce  the  infinite  altitudes, 
read  the  story  of  the  stars  and  the  planets,  and  the 
immortal  harmonies  we  call  the  heavens,  and  which  are 
the  pictures  and  preludes  of  the  higher  and  original 
heavens  to  be  entered  some  day.  To  me  it  seems  a 
striking  feature  in  the  Divine  Benevolence  that  the  eye 
should  be  constructed  as  we  find  it — able,  of  its  own 
independent  power,  to  traverse  millions  of  miles,  and 
to  rest  upon  the  light  of  spheres  so  distant  as  Arcturus 
and  Pleiades,  "  shedding  sweet  influence  ; "  and  at  the 
same  time,  by  virtue  of  the  added  power  which  the 
ingenuity  of  science  bestows,  that  it  should  be  able  to 
penetrate  as  remotely  in  the  other  direction.  For  what 
space  is  in  regard  to  the  spheres  that  astronomy  deals 
with,  minuteness  is  in  relation  to  those  which  pertain 
to  the  realm  of  the  microscope.  Were  our  eyes  fitted 
to  behold,  ordinarily  and  familiarly,  the  infinite  little, 
and  were  the  infinitely-distant  to  be  the  privilege  only 
of  the  philosopher  with  the  telescope,  it  is  probable  that 
the  whole  current  of  human  thought  would  be  different, 
—  unquestionably  it  would  not  be  so  noble,  —  certainly 
men  would  be  less  impressed  with  the  awfuluess  and 
the  grandeur  of  the  universe.  Seeing  them  only  casu- 
ally, and  many  men  never  seeing  them  at  all,  the  stars 
would  be  a  mere  fable  of  science,  instead  of  the  princely 
inheritance  of  every  human  being.  Therefore  ma}'  we 
thank  God  that  he  gives  us,  unsought,  so  much  glory, 


DISCLOSURES  OF  THE  MICROSCOPE.       81 

and  yet  permits  to  the  same  organ  that  commands  the 
sweet  lustre  of  the  winter  skies  a  corresponding  power 
to  interpret  the  invisible  in  the  world  of  nature. 

The  range  of  the  human  eye  may  be  judged  of  from 
a  consideration  which  gives  us  at  the  same  time  a  good 
idea  of  the  scope  of  animal  structure.  Supposing  that 
an  individual  of  every  known  species  were  to  take  its 
stand  between  the  two  species  that  were  respectively 
the  next  larger  and  the  next  smaller  than  itself,  the 
smallest  known  animal  being  at  one  extremity  of  the 
line,  and  the  largest  standing  at  the  other ;  and  then 
supposing  we  were  to  ask  which  creature  occupied  the 
middle  place,  having  as  many  degrees  of  size  below  it 
as  above,  and  as  many  above  it  as  below,  that  place 
would  be  found  to  be  occupied  by  the  common  house- 
fly. What  a  stupendous  optical  instrument  must  that 
be  which,  assisted  with  a  few  brass  tubes  and  some 
disks  of  glass,  shall  discern  a  creature  as  much  smaller 
than  a  fly  as  a  fly  is  smaller  than  an  elephant ! 

Perhaps  the  most  strikingly  beautiful  of  the  micro- 
scopic things  of  nature  are  found  among  those  minute 
and  countless  forms  of  vegetable  life  which  ordinarily 
are  termed  mildews  and  blight.  At  nearly  every  period 
of  the  year,  but  principally  in  late  summer  and  autumn, 
there  is  scarcely  a  plant  of  magnitude  that  does  not 
afford  an  example.  They  are  not  necessarily  perni- 
cious ;  many  species,  without  question,  are  injurious, 
causing  quaint  distortions,  consuming  the  substance  of 
the  leaf  or  other  portion  of  the  plant  they  may  be 
seated  upon,  and  eating  into  it  as  rust  eats  into  iron. 
Others,  however,  appear  to  be  more  of  the  nature  of 


82  THE  LITTLE  THINGS 

the  mosses  and  lichens  that  so  beautifully  embroider 
and  emboss  the  bark  of  the  aged  tree  ;  that  is  to  say, 
they  are  simply  epiphytes,  dwelling  upon  the  plant 
without  damaging  it,  and  comparable  to  the  birds  that 
build  their  pretty  cradles  among  the  branches.  When 
moderately  magnified,  these  little  vegetables  present 
forms  of  the  most  exquisite  symmetry,  and  are  so 
amazingly  varied  that  the  nobler  shapes  of  plants  seem 
but  fulfilments  on  a  larger  scale  of  designs  primarily 
set  forth  in  themselves.  The  realization  of  this  fact  by 
the  mind,  when  we  turn  away  from  the  charming  spec- 
tacle that  we  may  reflect  awhile,  is  the  highest  reward 
that  comes  of  the  scrutiny.  From  the  lowest  nature 
upwards,  every  object  and  every  phenomenon  is  a 
proem.  Complete  in  itself,  accomplishing  a  destiny, 
rounding  off  a  period,  giving  the  last  touch  of  perfection 
to  some  profound  and  beautiful  economy,  every  object 
in  nature  is  at  the  same  moment  pre-significant  of  some- 
thing to  follow.  Thus  is  it  wise  to  dive  into  the  world 
occupied  by  these  pigmies ;  for  while  amid  them  we 
dwell  with  the  earliest  utterances,  and  going  thence 
into  the  world  of  great  things,  the  latter  smile  upon  us 
as  familiar  faces.  One  of  the  prettiest  of  the  pigmies 
is  a  species  of  the  common  blue  mould  called  Aspergil- 
lus.  The  name  refers  to  the  resemblance  it  bears  to 
the  brush  used  in  Roman  Catholic  religious  sen-ices  for 
scattering  holy  water,  every  plant  consisting  of  a  slen- 
der stalk,  and  at  the  summit  a  tuft  of  beaded  filaments. 
Another,  quite  as  elegant,  but  totally  different,  is  found 
in  profusion  upon  the  leaves  of  the  coltsfoot,  which  it 
ornaments  underneath  with  yellow  patches.  Ever}- 


DISCLOSURES  OF   THE  MICROSCOPE.  83 

patch,  when  magnified,  becomes  a  crowd  of  fairy  vases, 
the  rims  notched  and  thrown  backwards  like  the  petals 
of  a  flower  !  Botanists  have  discriminated  many  hun- 
dred species  of  this  race  of  plants,  and  the  number  is 
daily  on  the  increase.  Not  that  new  ones  come  into 
existence,  but  that  careful  observation  quickens  the 
eyes  to  see  what  was  overlooked  before,  though  passed 
by  not  only  season  after  season,  but  day  after  day.  As 
fresh  air  and  early  enjoyment  of  it  are  the  best  of  cos- 
metics, so  is  natural  history  the  best  of  eye-salves. 

Transferring  our  attention  to  the  Mosses,  in  addition 
to  the  prefigurement  of  flowers,  we  have  that  of  the 
most  stately  and  regal  of  trees.  For  the  latter,  the 
microscope  is  not  needed.  Every  wood  contains  those 
incomparable  miniatures  of  the  oak  and  chesnut  which 
botanists  call  Hypnum  dendroides.  Where  the  climate 
and  soil  are  congenial,  they  give  us  imperium  in  im- 
perio,  one  kingdom  within  another ;  the  umbrageous 
patriarchs  overhead  supply  nothing  further  in  form  and 
profile  than  is  already  expressed  in  their  delicate  arbor- 
esceuce.  Very  pleasing  is  it  to  the  contemplative  thus 
to  find  as  a  carpet  for  the  feet,  the  same  delineations 
that  make  life  in  the  forest  a  delightful  renewal  of 
youth.  Take  their  little  flowers :  no  gem  of  the  garden 
will  excel  them.  In  the  Hypnum  above  referred  to, 
and  in  all  of  its  genus,  the  youngest  state  of  the  flowers 
presents  nothing  very  remarkable,  any  more  than  do 
the  buds  of  time  flowers — always  excepting  the  buds 
of  the  rose,  which  stand  alone  in  presenting  qualities 
as  lovely  as  those  of  the  fully-expanded  blossom. 
When,  however,  a  rather  advanced  condition  has  been 


84  THE  LITTLE  THIXOS  OF  MATURE. 

reached,  we  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  have  the  prototype 
of  a  daisy  ;  a  circlet  of  rays  spreads  from  the  margin 
of  a  round  cup,  which  reminds  us  of  the  milk-white 
aureola  of  that  pretty  field-flower.  These,  however,  so 
far  from  being  petals,  constitute  an  exquisite  hygro- 
metric  lid  of  many  pieces,  protecting  the  entrance  to 
the  seed-capsule,  which  latter  part  the  cup  really  con- 
sists of.  Sometimes  the  rays  are  like  gold  ;  sometimes 
they  are  rose-color,  with  horizontal  yellow  bars ;  in 
some  species  they  are  forked,  in  others  bent  inwards ; 
in  none,  however,  except  among  the  plants  called  Phas- 
cwm,  do  they  fail  to  appear  under  one  form  or  another. 
The  study  of  these  unconsidered  little  productions  is 
enough  for  any  man's  leisure,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  it 
he  becomes  a  child  over  again  ;  that  is  to  say,  he  lives 
over  again  in  the  intense  and  inexpressible  surprises 
and  sensations  of  novelty  that  make  up  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  the  heavenly  era  of  early  life.  While  it  is  good 
that  in  entering  upon  the  study  of  philosophy  we  seek 
to  do  so  with  the  meekness  and  humility  of  a  little 
child,  among  the  mosses,  with  a  fair  microscope  in  the 
hands,  we  are  children  once  more,  without  knowing  it, 
yea,  whether  we  will  or  no.  Whatever  tends  to  foster 
and  keep  alive  the  emotions  and  susceptibilities  of 
childhood,  is  precious  beyond  all  measure  ;  for  though 
manhood  gives  exaltation  to  pleasures,  and  though 
pleasures  of  the  highest  dignity  only  become  possible 
when  youth  has  passed  away,  the  keenest  and  most 
vivid  relish  still  belongs  to  the  childlike  heart  that  is 
simple  without  being  juvenile,  and  joyfully  expectant 
without  the  aid  of  illusion. 


DISCLOSURES  OF  THE  MICROSCOPE.  85 

Further,  there  is  inconcivable  richness  and  variety 
for  the  student  who  works  with  the  microscope,  in  the 
aquatics  which,  when  they  dwell  or  are  found  in  the 
country  of  the  mermaids,  we  call  "  sea-weeds,"  but 
which,  when  inhabiting  streams  and  fountains,  are 
"fresh-water  algae."  The  green  and  downy  mazes  that 
float  a  little  below  the  surface  of  the  water  in  a  still 
pond,  consist  of  an  infinite  number  of  attenuated 
threads  ;  these  in  turn  are  composed  of  an  infinite  num- 
ber of  hollow  green  beads,  placed  end  to  end,  and  firmly 
cemented  together ;  and  in  the  cavity  of  each  bead — 
for  every  one  of  them  is  an  independent  cell — lies  a 
drop  of  fluid  with  a  floating  island  formed  of  substance 
more  exquisite  j'et.  The  lovely  pink  sea-weeds  that  lie 
stranded  upon  the  brown  wet  sand,  uncovered  by  the  re- 
tiring waves,  differ  from  these  only  in  the  vastly  larger 
number  of  their  cells,  and  in  the  latter  forming  broad 
plates  instead  of  being  disposed  in  necklace-like  strings. 
Both  forms  are,  if  possible,  exceeded  in  beauty  by  a 
host  of  minute  organisms,  which  consist  of  only  a  couple 
of  cells.  Such  are  the  various  species  of  Micrasterias. 
More  wonderful  yet  is  the  Volvox,  for  in  this  is  super- 
added  to  exquisite  beauty  the  power  of  movement.  Yet 
the  volvox  is  a  plant  as  truly  as  an  oak-tree  or  a  lily. 
"We  are  accustomed  to  regard  movement  as  one  of  the 
grand  credentials  of  animal  nature.  True,  in  the  wav- 
ing of  the  trees  when  the  wind  creeps  among  their 
branches,  and  in  the  wave  of  light  that  runs  over  the 
cornfield,  when  gently  stirred  by  the  breeze,  making  it 
seem  a  vegetable  sea — true,  there  is  movement  here, 
and  in  the  sensitive-plant  we  seem  to  have  absolute 
8 


88  THE  LITTLE  THINGS  OF  NATURE. 

upon  ourselves,  and  upon  those  about  us,  and  upon 
Nature,  with  more  marvel,  and  more  love, — whatever 
does  this,  is  essentially  music.  Thanks  be  to  the 
Framer,  that  He  has  so  framed  human  senses  that  they 
may  receive  it ! 

Animal-life,  in  its  infinite  variety  of  presentation ; 
the  beautiful  stories  that  crystals  can  tell ;  and  a 
thousand  other  particulars  that  lie  in  the  great  heart  of 
Nature,  but  that  come  forth  at  the  first  call  of  the 
microscope,  belong  also  to  the  romance  of  this  wonder- 
ful instrument.  Here,  however,  for  the  present,  we 
must  pause.  It  is  well  that  between  the  acts  there 
should  be  leisure  for  the  voice  of  a  minstrel. 

"  These  are  Thy  glorious  works,  Parent  of  good, 
Almighty,  Thine  this  universal  frame, 
Thus  wondrous  fair;  Thyself  how  wondrous  then! 
Unspeakable,  who  sit'st  above  these  heavens, 
To  us  invisible  or  dimly  seen 
In  these  Thy  lowest  works ;  yet  these  declare 
Thy  goodness  beyond  thought,  and  power  divine." 


'"  •    '  •'''"'  "  *  n  i 


I 


I 


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